"We are just going to cause chaos, period," said Drew Hornbein, 25, who helped develop the Web site for Occupy's New York General Assembly. "Have you ever been in poverty in this country? Talk about inconvenience. I don't have any sympathy for anyone who has any semblance of middle-class life in this country -- no sympathy."

Whether protesters should feel otherwise and reach out to Americans who want to improve the system rather than overturn capitalism is a core question facing Occupy as its first birthday approaches, said Paul Getsos, a former lecturer on community organizing at the Columbia University School of Social Work who has been involved in the protests since Zuccotti Park.

"Does the movement want to engage the 99 percent in a deep and meaningful way?" asked Getsos. "Or does it want to engage the most radical and most committed?"

Venomous Forums

Attendees at general assemblies had long and circuitous talks about allocating money, not about "what they wanted in the world, or how they were going to change it," said Nicole Carty, 24, a Brown University graduate who helped run meetings.

Hornbein said that online forums became venomous as "systems broke down." A separate oversight body, the Spokes Council, also dissolved, he and other participants said.

That means there's no nucleus to a movement that had already rejected leaders, a central website, unified fundraising drives, administrative headquarters or a national advertising initiative. A working group that tried to come up with a list of essential demands wasn't able to, organizers said.

Anarchist Core

Some don't mind, pointing to campaigns this year to promote local farming or against student debt and weak financial regulations as models for decentralized activism. In this year's "Occupy Handbook," David Graeber, an anthropologist who teaches at Goldsmiths, University of London and was an early Occupy organizer, writes that demands shouldn't be articulated because the systems they would be addressed to are irredeemable.

Anarchists are at the heart of Occupy, organizers said.

"In a way, the fringe is the core," said Mushett, the novelist. "That's where you find a huge anarchist presence."