In Germany during the Second World War there was an expression, “Enjoy the War. Peace will be terrible.” Because of the heavy military spending, most the German populace was enjoying a standard of living like never before and when the war ended so too, for a time, did their way of life.
Most of the pundits and people in power are hoping for the exact opposite for the Occupy movement (or perhaps the 99% movement as occupying is fluctuating as a viable strategy); the hope is that when the good times come around people will stop occupying. Then it will no longer be a critique of power and the corrupt system but a small blip in an otherwise smooth history of public control.
That's not to say this current recession makes it any less legitimate, millions of people are hurting but what frightens people in power is the movement's potential for a sustained resistance against the status quo.
As Republican strategist and propagandist Frank Luntz pointed out, he's "frightened to death" because the movement is "having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism."
What we need to remember is not just to occupy and resist for Spring of this year, we need to keep on fighting even when the times are good. The fact is the recession won't last forever, it's expected to recover by 2017 and if we fade from view and stop fighting, then we've already lost.
It's one thing to protest when times are bad but if keep fighting when times are good, then they've lost. The charade is over. It's not just a case of a bad economy or a few bad apples, the whole system needs to go.