There is a large protest movement where I live. I used to be quite extensively involved with it. Over the last year I have watched it continuously splinter, disintegrate, and then regenerate into newly formed but mostly ineffectual groups.
Three week or four weeks ago I indulged myself with a rant over at Justice and Compassion. I thought I would repost some of it here, because it is my most articulate expression to date about why I am so pissed off about the anti-war movement:
"I was 2o years old on 9/11 and 22 when we went to Iraq. I participated in protests, walk outs, I went to meetings, signed petitions, wrote my congressmen and senators. I voted, I campaigned for Democrats for one election cycle and for the Green Party the next. I went to an “alternative” college specifically to learn economics and study politics from a non mainstream, “progressive” point of view. And in college I dropped banners over overpasses, I wore bandannas at protests where I raged against things like the concept of private property, I put my body in front of military vehicles, I was pepper sprayed by the police, I helped shut down streets. I did all of this out of “moral obligation” because I didn’t want the blood spilled by my government on my uncalloused hands.It feels especially blog-appropriate behavior to quote myself commenting on another blog.I did this for 4 years. Guess what? Nothing changed. I saw my friends split over “ideological differences”, became disgusted by extremisms, by arguments over the most “radical” strategies and tactics. I saw good people turn into ugly human beings obsessed by their own temporary stardom as activist giants, I saw good men revert to sexism while claiming to stand up for justice, stupid professors push vulnerable minds toward an imaginary revolution that ended in year long trials, skewed interpretations, all the consequence of young people participating in civil disobedience without wanting to pay or even understand that civil disobedience comes at a price.....
I am not an “Activist” anymore in the sense that you will not find me on the streets of Seattle at the end of this month, wearing a bandanna over my face, trying to “change the world”. I am sick and tired of holding signs while assholes honk their support for peace and smile at us thru their SUVS. The only thing I am sure of is that I cannot even fathom the amount of suffering this government has caused the people of the Middle East– and not just the people of the Middle East, but literally millions– the US government participating in secret wars, in trade agreements,– there is no end."
Fast forward to today. Many of my former "comrades" (can you hear the sarcasm in my voice) have just spent the last 5 days protesting equipment coming back from Iraq.
This pisses me off so much when I think about it, its hard to speak logically about it. And I KNOW these people. And I cannot BRING myself to be in solidarity with them. Am I just swinging back on some ideological pendulum? I still think the war is wrong, I just think it is moronic to protest incoming shipments.
Another thing that really pisses me off is people that want to protest for the sake of protesting. Also people that are not committed to non-violence. Watching video of these kids throw shit into the street in front of traffic makes me seethe! Do you they really think this is helping?
But I KNOW they think its helping. Even though I was always committed to nonviolence and never did anything more "radical" than be in the same general area where other people were engaging in "direct action". Or how about college kids doing graffiti that says "No war but class war"?????????? ARE YOU freaking kidding me? These are college students! But they are so brainwashed they think they can be the vanguard of the working class! AHHH
I had a "radical" professor that knew my history in the church and used to warn me that if I wasn't careful I could get disillusioned with the left and swing to the right. I don't know. I am not right wing at all! I mean seriously! Just because I don't believe in committing asinine illegals acts doesn't mean I am right wing! AHHHHH
and what does all of this have to do with Christianity? I'd rather just not talk about it and wait for things to blow over. Either way I am out of this town in 5 days, lucky me.
3 comments:
I couldn't agree with you more, this protesting isn't really having a helpful effect on anything. The only really tangible thing that has happened is that the additional police force is costing a significant amount of the city's money.
I'm not as angry about the protesting as you sound in this post. I'm mainly concerned for the safety of the protesters and police. I'm also frustrated that all this time and energy is going into this - when there are better things people could be doing to make a difference.
I'm wondering if one can divide protesting into two types, delineated as "effective" and "ineffective", and the effective one has a lot more thought and passion both put into it. Surely it's very arguable that the civil rights movement used protest effectively? Is it all in the setup? Is that super cynical for me to say so? I mean if Bush and Co can start in the week after they take over the white house brainstorming ways to convince us that invading Iraq is a good idea, surely *we* can somehow use our cunning--our most powerful and deep thinking members--to frame things in such a way that protest is effective?
Or maybe not.
Have you heard of the peacemaker teams? I mean there are something like 200 civilians a week dying in Iraq. How many American civilians would there have to be in Baghdad, for instance, in order for American troops to be killing at least one American civilian per month, on average? And how would such killings get covered by the media here? A lot more effectively than they are covering Iraqi civilian deaths, I bet. Mabye protest has to happen over there?
Marcy,
I also continue to be concerned for the safety of all involved, and also for the safety of people unintentionally involved in the choices of some protesters to take violent actions.
Ben,
I have been and will be thinking about your comments for a long time. I hadn't heard about the peacemaker teams, but I wikied them and learned a lot. Pretty intense.
In response to your other comments about effectiveness, I don't think I can ever personally advocate anything violent. I personally think violent tactics are ineffective. Violence and or hatred in response to violence and or hatred gives birth to more violence and hatred.
That said I have to admit that these protests have forced people in this community to talk about the war. It has also caused a lot of conflict and frustration. On the other hand, it has also cost the city an extreme amount of money. This is all part of the protesters plan-- they think the higher the cost to the city, the less likely the port will be to contract with the military. Great news if you want to end the militarization of the port and also don't care about other local social programs. You see, that money is going to come out of other budgets. So in one way I feel like the protesters either arent thinking or ARE thinking this: "screw money for homelessness and affordable housing and other programs so long as we don't have military shipments taking place in our backyard!"
I guess it could be said that because so many people have been killed, that gives people the moral right to engage in any tactics they deem useful to end the war, even violent tactics. I just disagree with that. Others don't and that's their business. I just hope no one gets hurt.
I just have to reiterate that i do not see how engaging in violence is going to end the war. Moreover, I don't see how protesting incoming shipments makes sense. Say the protesters succeed... should the material be dumped into the bay? Sent off to China maybe? It isn't logical to me.
One thing I wanted to point out also: the civil rights movement was also a christian movement deeply rooted non-violence. I just don't see how cementing railroad tracks is on the same level with that.
Honestly though, I am not even sure that a broad based peoples movement would be enough to stop this government, especially thanks to the many laws and repressive reforms that have taken place under the Bush administration.
These are just some random thoughts. I apologize if I sounded angry or unconcerned about the suffering of others in this post. I really do care, I just cannot get onboard with a group of people that I genuinely believe are doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons.
Another thing to consider is this: how effective of an activist is someone who ends up going to jail for years because the government decided their protest counted as terrorism?
Your questions are good ones. Believe me I am hyper aware of the death our government has caused, at least as much as I can be from my standpoint. I just don't think that makes the use of violence justifiable.
I think that here in this community we are seeing a kind of nonsensical uprising rooted in severe and mutually shared frustration at the lack of other processes to accomplish an end to this war and this administration. Here we are seeing young people rising up at the rallying call of their elders- and some in violence rising up- in complete frustration with what is happening. Even though I understand on one level, I still don't think it is okay to intimidate people, throw things and commit actions that harm others. It has been helpful for me to view violence as a spiraling continuum; there is no hierarchical place for rocking throwing, yet it is still violence and still part of the same continuum of hatred that includes murder and death, which is what everyone is supposed to be rallying against.
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