When demonstrators hit Cincinnati last week, they protested more than just the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue.

        They spoke out against corporate rule and for steelworkers' rights — sometimes in the same breath — sprinkled with a bit of anti-death-penalty rhetoric.

        And that was just for starters.

        But two scholars say a common thread unites these divergent causes — and it's reawakening the 1960s desire to demonstrate, 2000s-style.

        “There is a resurgence because the conditions are breeding more protest,” said Ray Browne, a professor emeritus of pop culture at Ohio's Bowling Green State University. “People are insisting on more and more equal rights for everything.”

        Alexander Bloom, a history professor at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, agrees: “Everyone with a complaint is showing up.”

        But, Dr. Bloom said, the protesters have one thing in common: They feel control of their lives slipping away from them — and out of the hands of their elected representatives.

        “People feel like it doesn't matter who you vote for because the big companies and the special interests really have the control,” he said.

        That's why there's widespread support for reform of campaign financing and HMO policies.

        “It's a general critique of a way of life,” Dr. Bloom said. Even if people aren't hitting the streets, “there's a kind of simmering or growing sort of challenge to the overall system.”

        America just completed the longest period in its history without an upsurge in public-issue protests. So why are protests on the rise now?

        Partly because of the nation's strong economy.

        “Despite the fact that it's the best life we've ever had, everything seems to be going wrong,” Dr. Browne said, sarcastically. “I think it's human nature to find something to complain about. If there's one thing we can't stand, it's having nothing to do.”

        Bottom line: Some protesters are cut off from the prosperity while others don't like what's fueling it.

        Dr. Bloom said he sees a social conscience developing among his college students, but Dr. Browne thinks today's activists tend to be motivated more by self-interest.

        “In the 1960s, I joined with people and we sang, "We shall overcome.' Now, it's my individual nose that I'm thumbing, and I say, "I shall get justice,'" he said. “In the '60s, the word was we deserve. Now the word is I demand. And that is a major revolution.”

        Today's protesters are more professional and better-organized than their peers 40 years ago, largely thanks to the Internet, Dr. Browne said. For last weekend's rallies, for example, participants could log on to find a list of scheduled activities and locations — and even a place to crash, if needed.

        Dr. Bloom said '60s protests are “overidealized and overromanticized.” But demonstrations still serve valuable functions for society and for the individual protesters, the professors said.

        Protesting can forge important social changes. It also lets off steam that could violently erupt in less-controlled settings.

        And, Dr. Bloom said, “it gives a different kind of meaning to life if you have something that you're committed to beyond yourself.”

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