Effectiveness Of Protests

Between SkepticOverlord's pics and coverage on the news channels, I have to question the effectiveness of the protesters out in force for the RNC. Quite frankly, my perception is that most of these people, groups and causes tend to represent more of the fringe element. Even for those causes that are more mainstream, the participants tend to push the perception more towards the fringe. The real question is, are these people in fact hurting their causes rather than advancing them?

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The protests are physical embodiment of the feelings of certainly all the protesters, and probably reflects a deeper dissatisfaction with the NeoCons and their disasterous economic, corporate and international policies.

It is SO refreshing to see people get engaged in the politcal process instead of sitting on enlarged posteriors, feeding like bovine creatures.

Perhaps this election won't be stolen like the last one.
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Too many thinks it is useless to protest. However, they do measure community response. If 75% of local population were to protest, they'd definately listen. Since a high number believes it doesn't work, high turnout is a thing of the past.

Also, people need to vent their distress of a situation. I mean, it really is true that if you hold something in, it comes out where its not wanted. So through protest people are essentially relieving their stress of a situation. And whether or not, they get their message across, it is the people who protest who will always benefit.

That is..unless they are rounded up in a cage like Boston. It's not as bad in New York, because there are many open protest zones it seems.

I guess they couldn't afford that many cages with all the money going to Iraq.

Personally, I think that demonstrations and "street theater" are passe.

I think their heyday probably stretched from the 1870's to the 1970's. Women's suffrage helped introduce the idea of mass demonstrations. Certainly fascist and communist movements jumped on the bandwagon during the interwar period.

Gandhi was able to wake up the British Empire with street theatre, and it still had impact until the 70's. I think that for US audiences, they became so common that they lost their impact, sort of like TV commericials that you see so many times that they fail to even register. You know the jingle but you're not sure what the product is.

Don't get me wrong, I was involved in a lot of demonstrations, up through the early 90's. But the fire had gone out of it by the late 80's. The tone of leadership at these events is pretty obviously nostalgic for the 1960's and the whole hippie movement. But those days are past.

Frankly, I think gay pride parades probably wore out middle America's patience. They helped the "left coast" earn a label as a crazed Babylon that has nothing to do with the rest of the real world. Personally, I think that the progress of the gay-rights issue has probably been slowed down by its associations with New York and California in the popular imagination.

I think that the Farakhan's million-man march was a seminal event in the black public's imagination, but was ignored by nonblacks as a media-generated spectacle.

If I were looking to advance a political agenda, I wouldn't host a demonstration, I'd make a movie about it, or set up a mutual fund that invested in corporations friendly to my movement.

Well I saw a green party promotional sign laying on the ground just thrown away, yet these people protest for a cleaner environment.......

I would say..........Yes!!!

Demonstrations will always have a place in the political discourse. My feeling is that the timing of these demonstrations and the general tone of them works against the causes championed. The political parties are exercising the political process as it should be and the demonstrations become a sideshow. It's overkill and the tactics alienate the mainstream.
I'm glad I was in Vietnam for the '68 Democratic Convention.

[edit on 04/8/29 by GradyPhilpott]

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Not to be insulting, Dr Strangecraft, but often what we perceive about things outside ourselves is actually more a reflection of that which is within ourselves. Objectively could it be that the fire has gone out of you? Could it be that you don't feel passionately and that is why you don't understand why these people feel the need to protest? I honestly believe that the sick corporate culture we live in, which GW Bush is currently at the center, will lead us to personal and collective degradation, and all for benefit of an ultra privileged few.

What could say more than people protesting because they are impassioned?
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Sure, slank your point is valid.

I was trying to think of it in terms of number of demonstrations and attendance numbers. But I don't have any objective figures.

You have to admit, there was a lot more well-attended demonstrations back even in the 80's. Outside of D.C. or California, when is the last time you saw 100,000 in the street?

When was the last big demonstration in St. Louis? Or Nashville?

Most of the youth culture have more to lose, as well. Hippies were a fairly aescetic bunch. Somehow, driving daddy's beamer to a protest takes some of the fun out of it, I'd bet.

dr_strangecraft,

Your painting those protesters with a very broad brush....Sure some of them are like that, and some aren't. Some people live in their apartments struggling to make ends meet... It's not what you just said.

And these kids don't have anything to lose... They are kids and thats it...
It's good to pull your pants up at a young age but most don't so they don't really need to start worrying about their future until they are 18-23...

You really should have a sense of direction around 24, over that, well your just #ing up...

These people do feel passionate about what they are fighting for, however being human beings we tend to contradict ourselves. While fighting for one thing they believe in, they do the very thing they hate about what others are doing. Although they don't see it, it's human error...
I wish the world was a more logical place where everybody was super observant of the world around them as well as their selves but it's everything but...
We have to appreciate there are people out there that want change and do what they can to make their point across... It's just too bad also that media outlets don't give them the credit they deserve ... But we all know why that is.

You're right, I was painting with a broad brush. I was generalizing from my own experience.

I was involved in leftist politics when I was younger (tho I personally was an anarchist). I was particularly active in anti-apartheid movements, and convincing university to divest themselves of stock holdings in Apartheid-era south africa.

One of the things that so disenchanted me was the fact that most of the "leaders of the movement" were wealthy types whose parents were busy executives. Most of the leadership did drive german import cars. I didn't even own a car until 2 years after I graduated from college. I also worked in warehouses and restaurants to pay my way through school. The leadership was going to college on stock dividends from grampa's invention of aluminum siding.

The other thing that bothered me is that as I moved upward in leftist circles, I saw how much the program was manipulated by the government itself. I'm totally serious about that. I saw one of the biggest rallies of the decade, that resulted in dozens of arrests, orchestrated with the FBI's insider in the movement. The left leadership knew about it, too (they told ME), but they didn't care because the govt. was funneling money into their programs.

It was the most decadent, corrupt thing you ever saw. FBI and left were supporting each other, helping each other write their reports and coordinate operations so that their supporters kept sending money. Leftists for the rally organizers, congress for the FBI.

I guess I'm feeling especially cynical this morning. I say that political movements are every bit as venal, cynical, and self-seeking as any tv evangelist. They offer no real hope.

Sorry if I sound bitter, but, to quote Walter Concrete,

"And that's the way it is. Good night."

protests can be very effective, but it depends at whom you are protesting at/about

Look at the anti-war protests in London, and still Tony Blair didn't listen.

Originally posted by slank
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The protests are physical embodiment of the feelings of certainly all the protesters, and probably reflects a deeper dissatisfaction with the NeoCons and their disasterous economic, corporate and international policies.

It is SO refreshing to see people get engaged in the politcal process instead of sitting on enlarged posteriors, feeding like bovine creatures.

Perhaps this election won't be stolen like the last one.
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Average people looking at this sea of human debris, aka, protesters, will want nothing to do with them. Definately helps Bush!
Protest your liberal/commie hearts out!