“It began, as it so often does, with a drum circle.”

This is too rich:

All occupiers are equal — but some occupiers are more equal than others. In wind-whipped Zuccotti Park, new divisions and hierarchies are threatening to upend Occupy Wall Street and its leaderless collective.

As the protest has grown, some of the occupiers have spontaneously taken charge on projects large and small. But many of the people in Zuccotti Park aren’t taking direction well, leading to a tense Thursday of political disagreements, the occasional shouting match, and at least one fistfight.

Read the whole thing. You’d think the big downside to a bunch of dirty hippies camping out in your neighborhood would be the smell. But no, apparently it’s the drumming. That damned incessant drumming. Hippie drum circles, and hippies themselves really, are a modern phenomena. I’m sure they’ve always existed in some form or another, but I have to wonder if their current culture can survive because we’re too polite a society. How long do you think the New Yorkers from this New York would have tolerated this before the drummers and there drums were enthusiastically re-loacted?

The Tea Party movement actually went through similar tribulations, as groups formed, and people tried to anoint themselves into leadership positions in the movement. That’s still going on, and it’s human nature. But I would point out that the Tea Party movement managed to do this while most of them were holding down jobs, and not ruining a park.