From the San Francisco Chronicle:
As a teenager, Micah White faced insults and intimidation when he started an atheists' club at his Michigan high school. This year, White, now 29 and a Berkeley resident, has found a more receptive climate for his ideas. In collaboration with a colleague at the anticonsumerist magazine Adbusters, White conceptualized and ignited a worldwide mass movement: Occupy Wall Street.... But it was only this year, as a brutal economic downturn continued to ravage, that its message found worldwide resonance. "They threw out an idea that people rallied around, and it took off; it's amazing," said David Meyer, a professor of sociology and political science at UC Irvine who studies social movements. Why now? "Conventional politics really seem to have failed people. Working within institutions didn't seem to be the most promising route," Meyer said.

For the full story, please visit http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/04/BUOG1M75GR.DTL.