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Who's Roger?

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on July 27, 2004 - 8:12am.
on

I don't know.

But between Atrios' comments on protesters and DNC security, and Roger's commentary of it you have a couple things to think about when considering the utility of street protests.

(1) Ever since the anti-Vietnam War protests, leftists and minority groups of every shade and stripe have made protests and demonstrations a mainstay -- if not THE mainstay -- of their popular response to most everything that happens politically. And, I would contend, ever since the Vietnam War, protests and demonstrations have been practically worthless as a means of changing public policy or public opinion. Simply put, they've been done to death.

(2) A mutual acquaintance of ours on the internet made a very important point that I fully agree with but that -- as I think you may recall -- some others in our circle (more stolidly leftist than she or we) reacted very negatively to. She noted that back when the original civil rights marches were being organized, those behind them INSISTED that anyone participating must look and act a certain way. Folks had to be clean, they had to have good haircuts and either be shaved or with neatly-trimmed beards and mustaches. On many of the early civil rights marches, men HAD to wear ties and white shirts and dress slacks. Women HAD to wear neat, professional work dresses or skirts and blouses.

3) My third point really ties points #1 and #2 together: it seems to me that many leftists who engage in protests -- marches, demonstrations, and so on -- do so in order to look like they're doing something, or feel like they're doing something ... but not, in fact, in order to actually DO something.

"Doing something" that’s actually REAL, that would actually have a chance at changing things, would require hard work and innovative thinking. It would require action that extends over time, and would be less instantly gratifying than going out and howling in protest.

(4) BONUS POINT: More on self-indulgence. Whenever a protest march or demonstration is called these days, you can be just certain that many, many, MANY of your participants will use it as an occasion to protest EVERYTHING. Do you want to have a protest about destruction of old growth forests? Be prepared for some folks to show up with signs, T-shirts, or slogans about gay rights, or the 2000 election scandal, or Enron, or something else completely and utterly unrelated. Do these folks EVER think? Are they just completely, absolutely, utterly clueless?

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Submitted by Ben G. (not verified) on July 27, 2004 - 9:42am.

This is something I've been thinking about. What sort of political action today would achieve the same desired effects as the mass political protests of the 1960s, specfically those engineered by the Civil Rights Movment?

Those protests had a very specific, crafted intent, "the surfacing of tensions already present," in the words of MLK.

To cure injustices, you must expose them before the light of human conscience and the bar of public opinion. regardless of whatever tensions that exposure generates. Injustices to the Negro must be brought out into the open where they cannot be evaded . . . to precipitate a crisis situation that must open the door to negotiation . . . [so that] the pressure of public opinion becomes an ally in your just cause." (quoted in David J. Garrow, Bearing the Cross: MLK, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, p. 228)

This is something quite different than showing up to show you disagree with bad things.

Submitted by Al-Muhajabah (not verified) on July 27, 2004 - 1:28pm.

I think this is true. There's something to be said for taking part in a couple of good protest marches, but some people seem to make it a full-time job.

Submitted by r@d@r (not verified) on July 27, 2004 - 2:39pm.

well, it's tough to organize effective protests with a well-focused and effective message, when the only groups that are willing to spend time and energy doing the legwork are demonized as radical fringe groups that everybody would rather be set on fire than be seen with. people wouldn't have to make it a full-time job if the rest of us didn't take more responsibility to make it look the way we'd like it to look. i am as guilty of this as anyone.

Submitted by P6 (not verified) on July 28, 2004 - 5:56pm.

Here's an unfortunate truth: protesters, on the whole, are the lunatic fringe as far as your average citizen is concerned.

Your average citizen, you see, is going along to get along. To them, at best, a protest is the next episode of Short Attention Span Theater. And the authorities just assign a few cops some overtime and wait a few days.

We're numb. And we're not protesting outrages. One reason the Civil Rights movement's protests worked is what they brought to light was an affront to America's self-image. Another was that the protesters were seen as under attack whereas now they are seen as attackers.