On Protest as a Tactic
I’ve been thinking about the whole notion of “protest” lately – specifically the variety where a bunch of people gather together at some physical location to demonstrate their objections to policies or institutions that they disagree with. (I’m deliberately using “protest” to refer to this, not to individual acts or boycotts or other varieties of expressing displeasure.) We’ve had a lot of these hit the news this year: Greek austerity protests, the protest/riots in London, the “Arab Spring” wave of protests, and the Occupy movement, to name but a few. Gathering somewhere to publicly air grievances is a very old tactic, and obviously still popular. Still, I can’t help wondering about the efficacy and utility of this tactic in the context of your “average” Western society (if there can be said to be such a thing). I don’t have any concrete conclusions, but here is my thinking so far…
Fundamentally, everyone just wants to be happy.
Let them have their protest. Better yet, order them some food and drink, play some funky music, and let them get their groove on. Eventually, people will get tired and go home. Sure, it’s placating them, but I’d much rather see that than the unreasonable force that’s often used to quell protests. All protesters really want is to feel as if their opinions have been heard (even if it isn’t necessarily the case).
That might sound as if I’m jesting and I don’t fundamentally agree with the premise of a protest like Occupy, but that’s far from true. I think the world needs to change drastically. I think we can find a better way to live so that no one is ever poor or a beggar. The problem is most people are afraid of change, and since I’m talking about drastic change here, well… it’s bound to be frightening for most (though I think less frightening for people if they’re actually involved in the process to bring about change).
Basically, I say let them protest (as long as it remains peaceful and not a health concern or a security threat for anyone) and let’s move on to addressing the issues that are at the core of why Occupy even started. Let’s start finding solutions that will help build all humans a better society for the future and continuing development of humankind. We need to start thinking progressively and outside the box. As humans, we have a long way to go, but so far all we’ve done is fight with each other on one planet in a huge universe. We’re all humans and we all live on this planet (which by the way belongs to no one and everyone), so maybe we should start thinking as one.
