OK, OK. I know that I recently posted a blog issuing my full support for those protesting the law enforcement system. In light of that, this post may seem like me doubling-back on my words. Trust me; that is not the case at all. But between protesters tearing Missouri apart with rioting, looting, and violence against their own community and people blocking roads near malls during the holiday season just to get someone to listen to them chant the same seven or eight words ad nauseum, I think it is safe to say that we as a nation have entirely forgotten how to protest.
If your chosen form of protest is blocking public roads, delaying people of all walks of life, including those that support you, from getting to and from work, to and from their homes, their families, and their friends, then you are alienating and aggravating a large portion of people who may otherwise support your cause. Laying in a street will not change anything. Inconveniencing people will not change anything. Being noisy for the sake of noise with simple, unaffecting chants will not change anything. You're not raising awareness to your cause, and you're not making the regular Joes, of which America is near entirely comprised, think that you've got a valid point. Remember, Americans have a short attention span and go with whatever is the current mood. We tear down our own beloved celebrities in violent droves all because the Internet told us to, without actually knowing why we are doing it or with any actual facts. Pissing these people off is the best way to get them to dismiss you entirely. Or worse, they will start working against you.
Blanket protest tactics like blocking public roads work in very much the same way as an old-fashioned carpet bombing: sure, you'll hit some of the good guys. But you'll get the bad guys too, so it's all worthwhile, right? Wrong. There is a reason that we don't carpet bomb as a military strategy anymore. You subjugate an entire population by demonstrating to them that your particular objective is more important than the overall well-being of society.
(As an aside, a "die-in" is the most American form of protest that has ever been thought up. Other civil rights activists are marching on Washington, and here you are just laying around in a street to make your point. How lazily patriotic of you. I know what you are representing with the imagery, but I don't think it is working the way you thought that it might. I think it represents protest with minimal effort; rather than creating a meaningful, original message, you are relying on sideshow shock value to try and raise awareness.)
Let's look back at another, much more widespread protest: Occupy Wall Street. That was a total boon, and not because the people didn't support it well enough. It wasn't because it was an invalid point, either. We as Americans have sat back and watched the corporatization of our culture through Kardashian-colored glasses. The financial and automotive industries became "too big to fail," which was interpreted as their being the pinnacles of modern business savvy. Instead, it only meant that we could no longer afford to have businesses that large fail, so we gave them a pound of flesh from each citizen. Of course, something needed to be done. And the people protested...
...completely uselessly. What started as an idea supported by those who were tired of the financial inequalities inherent in a capitalist society ended up as scores of uneducated, disenfranchised boobs that were never franchised to begin with. The movement died because the din of unwashed, part-time anarchists drowned out any possibilities of responsible communication. The powers that be looked down upon the citizens and laughed at the disorganized, yammering mess and knew full well that such a nebulous mass could never organize itself well enough or smart enough to ever become the shock to the system that it should have been. No one went to jail. No meaningful policies were enacted by any form of government that would prevent the economy from collapsing again. No one agreed that the deteriorating middle class was actually a big deal. All that noise for nothing.
This is what we see in my generation's ability to protest: the few with legitimate arguments surround themselves with bustling crowds of morons who are just looking for something to get mad about. I feel terrible for those who are currently protesting because the media outlets seem to keep getting their hands on the least-informed participants in the protest to interview for their stories (Is this a strategy of theirs? Perhaps...). Many of these interviewees don't know, or at least cannot articulate, what it is that they are trying to accomplish, what a fair outcome might be, or specific means by which we may reach the fruits of the protest's efforts. Screaming that "white cops hate black people" is not only a generalization that isn't fair or accurate (just like "black people are criminals"), it is misguided and inflammatory. If the goal is to reform law enforcement in its entirety, then the best way to make progress would be to offer realistic solutions to the inequalities that exist. Work with the powers that you want to change. Better yet, become a part of the system, maintain your values and beliefs, and change the system from the inside.
The protesting crowds of the past several years don't care what the issue is, so long as they can go home feeling like they finally stuck it to the proverbial "Man." Meanwhile, the Man never removed his dick from your ass. He just waited for you to calm down for a little while, allowing your butthole to loosen back up again (as any gentleman would) before resuming the jackhammer-fucking you were getting before you opened your whore mouth. You dirty girl.
If you want real, permanent change, then you have to attract the people to your cause, not repel them with these rallies that impede traffic and lash out at everyone instead of just your targets. Do you really want this movement to stick in the American consciousness? You have to stay the course and not get tired; you must outlast the collective American attention span while maintaining visibility that sheds a positive light on your cause. While you are doing this, you must also be vigilant in initiating dialog and challenging authority in a non-threatening manner. You have to stay cleaner than your enemies. You also have to be willing to make those same enemies your friends in order to change the system that they built.
Don't rabble-rouse in the streets for violence and aimless anger. Don't call for justice (such as, for example, a grand jury trial) and then immediately dismiss the results as the will of a fascist system just because the results aren't what you wanted. When this happens, it means that you never wanted justice in the first place. It means that you only wanted blood. That is not justice, that's a perversion of justice. That turns you into the very thing you accuse your enemy of being: a monster. A vigilante. You feel like society is against you, but employ tactics that put distance between yourself and society.
Always keep in mind that justice is a scale, not a noose. We will not always get the results that we had hoped for, but it is up to us and us alone to reform the justice system as a nation entire, not as a disorganized mob.
You have to attract people who are on the opposite side, or at least those on the fence about the subject. The greatest leaders of past rebellious movements in this nation and abroad did not irritate others into action. They balance protest with meaningful discussion. They challenged the inadequacies of the system with intelligent discourse and peaceful, organized protest. The more you show yourself to be a lawless menace to all citizens, the more you prove the points made by your opposers. The more you negatively impact those who are not yet with you, the more that they will be against you. Your issue is not with the regular citizens. Your issue is with the powers that confront you, the ones that treat you unfairly, and that needs to be stopped. Making a negative impact on those who haven't chosen a side and with whom you do not have a problem with will definitely help them with their decision.
Protesters, your cause has my full support, for whatever that is worth. However, not all of your tactics have the same support, at least not from me. You may be raising awareness of your cause, but perhaps not in the way that you had hoped for.
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