Occupy sites the front line for a generation that got ripped off

The Occupy Hong Kong movement has been with us for some time now. What came as a revelation isn't how much the protesters love democracy, but how much they hate the status quo.

You can tell by their impossible demands and intransigence that the last thing they want is for things to return to normal. It's apparent that they consider themselves not only fighters for democracy, but also victims of the oppression and tyranny of the status quo.

Many people didn't see it coming, for the protesters had kept their anger and frustration mostly to themselves until they became galvanised and emboldened by the movement. The American writer Henry David Thoreau said most people lead lives of quiet desperation. Many of the protesters would certainly agree.

There's a lesson to be learnt here. Public discontent may lie dormant for years, but it should never be considered extinct. The price of good governance, like the price of freedom, is eternal vigilance.

It's a sign of how complacent and out of touch the government had been that it seemed to be caught unprepared for the volcanic eruption of dissatisfaction and hostility unleashed by the movement.

Without exaggeration, the Occupy movement is a generational war. The so-called Occupy Generation, whose members are mostly students and young workers born during and since the 1980s, believe that they are fighting for a better future for themselves, and they never tire of reminding the media and their detractors that time is on their side.

They obviously feel no qualms about making life inconvenient, even difficult, for others in their fight for a better Hong Kong. Collateral damage, apparently, is nothing to lose sleep over.