Occupy Facebook

Editor's Note: This past week, WORLD editor in chief Marvin Olasky hosted a group of mid-career WORLD readers for a series of intense journalism training sessions in Asheville, N.C. One of their assignments was to analyze aspects of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and here is one of those commentaries.

Occupy Wall Street. Occupy Detroit. Occupy Boise.

Occupy Sesame Street?

Numerous Facebook pages contain the first word "Occupy." Beyond "Occupy Wall Street," most of them name cities, and the majority appear to be in earnest. "Occupy Sesame Street," which seems intended to provoke a grin, shows up with more than 40,000 "likes."

The Occupy Wall Street movement is leveraging Facebook to spread its political philosophy. What economic and political conditions allowed for an innovation like Facebook to develop? It's hard to imagine something like it emerging from a country that lacks the incentives of a free market economy.

While the specific goals of the Occupy movement remain vague, one of the major complaints seems to be against big, successful corporations and their ultra-rich CEOs. Facebook is worth $4.27 billion, yet the Occupy movement relies heavily on it to network its cause. I wonder if Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the world's youngest billionaire, is camping out at any of the Occupy sites?

The Associated Press contributed to this report.