How can the Occupy movement keep the heat on?

As the first snow swirls to the streets, the usual sense of quiet loathing is accompanied by something else. Inevitable worry is welded to icy flakes and cheek-numbing wind.

Minnesotans have an oracle-like moment around this time of year -- forseeing shoveling their cars out of multiple feet of snow or how wearing Ugg boots will be pointless because no one will see them when you are knee-deep on your front stoop.

Similarly, without a doubt, few Minnesotans believe the Occupiers will survive through Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Sure, by setting up tents and making dusty Swiss Miss hot chocolate every hour, there will be a courageous few. But a few donated heat lamps and miniature, freeze-dried spheres of marshmallow-flavored sugar will numb the political libido of most. Anyone who thinks otherwise is in denial.

The real question is: What foundational problems does the Occupy movement have?

One theory compares the current protests to the peace protests of the flower power days. The Occupiers do not have the soul of the tie-dyed, guitar strummers of the '60s.

HP-computer-printed signs reading, "WE ARE THE 99" Scotch-taped to Home Depot yardsticks lack humanity as much as it promotes hypocrisy.

"Gee whiz, I really do not agree with what you are arguing but I seriously appreciate your bravery to say what you need to say and I can completely understand why you would believe such a thing."

The problem with being part of "the 99" is the copious number of people on different pages. However, that didn't stop Rodney King rioters in the early '90s.

They were from all ethnicities, all walks of life. They came together in violence. What is stopping protesters from coming together in peace today? It must be the decade. It must be the generation.

A final theory involves the idea of everyone being on different pages of the same tome. The corporations have exposed people to a false sense of individualism. Everyone has been given the same coloring book with the same 48 Crayola crayons.

Limited to the restrictions of the page and the restrictions of the colors, one still is deluded into thinking he or she is different -- distancing oneself from the group.

The reality was that Nike used the database of what people created to design shoes to appeal to a majority of potential customers -- an unsatisfying America's Top 40 of shoelaces, colors and degrees of sheen.

The political climate has faced a similar fate.

The Occupier is thrilled to toss in his or her flavor of political angst. American Indians are tired of having their rights trampled on; electricians deserve more money; legalizing marijuana would revive the economy; teachers deserve more money; gays and lesbians should have the same rights as everyone else; our wars are racking up immense tabs, and so on.

This is a short sample of what you might hear while attending an OccupyMN general assembly. These disassociated jumbles of ideas are fantastic and valid.

Unfortunately, it distances the protesters from one another. Their false sense of individualism allows them to wander away from the collective, from the main problem: many people and corporations make way too much money.

They should rethink who exactly is funding their tame and soulless fight. Ugg boots? Swiss Miss? HP? Scotch tape? Home Depot? Crayola? Nike?

How much do the CEOs of those companies make?

* * *