Michael Weiss pinpoints a conflict in American culture:

Previous examples of shameless speculation — take junk bonds in the 80’s — drew the same fierce denunciations of the speculators. But somehow, a popular culture simultaneously grew up that glorified these bad guys and rooted in them in the mythos of the American Dream. … OWS sees itself as a battalion against a lifestyle and a mindset that people don’t, in fact, deplore so much as they do the ruin that that lifestyle and mindset causes. Until the movement figures out how reconcile this uniquely American contradiction, and account reasonably for why it exists, OWS will only be subject to further derision and dismissal.

Unembeddable scene of Boiler Room characters quoting Gordon Gecko here. On a related note, Christopher Orr recommends the latest film on Wall Street culture, Margin Call.