The 99 percent solution
Two Harvard events this week pondered the ideas and the realities behind Occupy Wall Street, a monthlong economic protest in New York City that has spawned hundreds of similar actions across the globe, including in Boston. A Harvard professor of design used a lunchtime lecture on Oct. 12 to explain the legalities of privately owned public spaces like Zuccotti Park in Manhattan, ground zero for Occupy Wall Street. And a panel discussion at the Harvard Kennedy School’s (HKS) John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum last night attempted to parse the meaning of the protest, whose chief metaphor is “99 percent,” meaning the vast majority of Americans who have failed to gain economic ground while Wall Street profits have grown. The panel, sponsored by the Institute of Politics (IOP), didn’t answer a pivotal question about Occupy Wall Street, raised right away by moderator Marshall Ganz ’64: “Is it a moment,” he wondered, “or a movement?”...