Why I stopped protesting

Thanks to Dave over at Chicken or Beef for reminding me why I stopped protesting against the invasion of Iraq. The article from Alternet that he highlighted pretty much summed it up for me. Having marched four times down Market Street in San Francisco carrying my "Born to drill, born to drill" placard I gave up after the bombs started falling. Literally, I gave up. As the article pointed out, all those marches proved was that peacefully protesting in the streets doesn't do a damned thing to government policy any more, at least not while Bush Co. is in power.

Bush already knew that a huge percentage of the country was against the war, and even if it wasn't a majority he should have taken note of their concerns. He should have double checked his information, double checked his rationale, and explored all non-violent alternatives. But because it wasn't representative of a majority he didn't care. Precisely 50% of the voting public could have turned out and he wouldn't have batted an eyelid before pressing the big red "Invade" button. And he didn't. So no matter what was going on in the streets of cities across the country he had his poll figures, he had his kabul of cloistered NeoCon adivsors and he was going to have his war.

So why should Bush have considered the opinions of what apparently was a minority voice anyway? Well maybe there's a significant number of people who are just lemmings - they'll do, say and vote along with what they believe everyone else is doing, saying and voting. If the image of the majority is whatever is projected on their TV every night, and those people surround themselves with like minded lemmings then they form a highly influenceable group that is just doing whatever the TV tells them to do. Its often the independent minority that expresses itself outside of the regular channels that represents the true good for the community as a whole. If their opinions are not given due consideration then valid discent will be buried at the expense of the common good.

If you think this is crazy talk ask yourself what percentage of American people would have voted to invade Iraq before Bush started up his drumbeat for war and launched his weapons of mass deception (otherwise known as lies, damned lies and Bush speak) on the unsuspecting American public. I would guess it would have been way less than a majority, maybe 20%? Probably the same 20% who would say "Yes" to invade almost any foreign country, especially a Muslem one, on any given day. So basically one tiny insignificant minority of men who just happened to have fenageled their way into positions of power, got it into their heads to manufacture an excuse to invade Iraq and persuade the majority of people it was a good idea. So why shouldn't a significant minority of the people protest on the streets and try to change the opinions of the rest? Why not? Why not indeed. It is (supposedly) a constitutionaly protected right after all.

But again as the Alternet article points out the media and the government have now found that for the most part demonstrating on the streets has been rendered ineffective to the point where you might just as well slap a bumper stick on your car and pray the people behind you all miracuously change their minds. Protesting has become a feel good expression of frustration like going into the woods and screaming. But its certainly no longer an effective means for change.

So there you have it (after my usual waffly reasoning), I stopped marching because I realized it just wasn't going to have any effect other than give me a false sense of feeling good about demonstrating. So now I quitely blog away, try to educate anyone and everyone I can about issues like corporate personhood, will stand my ground and argue against Bush policies to the best of my abilities with anyone that will listen, and try to put my money where my mouth is when it comes to playing my unavoidable roll in consumer society, or donating to various activist organizations.

Is it enough? Probably not. Can I do better? Probably. Will I? Well show me something that's working and I'll sign up for it but I have to tell you I haven't yet figured out what that is. And Dave, if you want to put on a uniform and chant in unison as we march up and down Market Street, sure why not! I think if we all started wearing uniform outfits it would certainly upset the apparel industry! We could call ourselves the unfashionistas... Its certainly better than Bush Co's name for the people - fodder units.