Occupy Wall Street is becoming a meaningful movement these days, with large numbers of people out on the street in several major cities and many more engaging cautiously, curious about what the movement's message is.

That curiosity is a rough proxy for potential radicalization - it stems from a fear that our society is broken beyond reform and must be reset. Occupy is clearly convinced of this. The curious people aren't convinced of this yet, but they are now tuned-in and looking for information (either from OWS or from deteriorating conditions) that might confirm their fears.

I'm not suggesting the ideas behind Occupy Wall Street will ever convert even a meaningful minority (the jury's very much out on OWS), but right now, there are a lot of folks who feel themselves unhappy with the status quo and beginning to evaluate radically different systems.

I'm not suggesting we're close to an "American Spring," but we're a lot closer than most people think we are.