Preposterous. First of all, beatniks, hippies, and punks were never the majority of their generations. We use them as shorthand for certain eras because they w

Preposterous. First of all, beatniks, hippies, and punks were never the majority of their generations. We use them as shorthand for certain eras because they were innovative. But that's another way of saying that they weren't like everybody else. The truth is, there was never a generation as socially conscious and globally aware as this one. It's not because they are more virtuous, it's because this is just the world they live in now. How dare you suggest that this generation has no "narrative" when we have a global protest movement ongoing right now, that's fixating the attention of the whole world? Like the best of the punks, they're not just talking about it; they're doing it. And unlike 1968, they have more than slogans and attitude; they have technological and social skills and they're setting to build an alternative vision of society. And there isn't even a need for everyone to have exactly the same goals before we move forward. A libertarian and a hippie can have different visions of society, but still agree on how to make a communication protocol robust. Perhaps that is the main difference; this new generation seeks practical agreement rather than ideological unanimity. That's a lot of what OWS is about as well; developing a practice that can afford many different views. These practices don't exclude anyone, or even have one single agenda. On the contrary, they thrive on diversity. Forget the hopelessly naive 1960s concept of "speaking truth to power". The new ideal is to create a self-sustaining practice that brings about change. To me, that's the internet; that's Burning Man; that's Tor, Mozilla, Wikipedia, and even Google on their best days; and that's Occupy Wall Street. And from what I can see, it's working.