I think it is time for some perspective.
Protest do not guarantee change, no sane person would ever claim otherwise.
Indeed many protest objectively do not achieve their stated goal, e.g. ironically the last anti Iraq war protest, which was huge. But to be fair it was shortly after the US suffered a major bloody nose by predominantly Saudi terrorists backed by Saudi money, so it is somewhat understandable that the US would want to invade Iraq because of weapons of mythic destruction.
I am sure we could name many other protests that didn't end up changing the world over night.
Actually I cannot think of many protest that change the world over night. That really is not the point.
No one is going out to protest tomorrow with the expectation that Trump will go on Fox and Friends the next day to declare he will let bygones be bygones.
With that out of the way protest are still a very significant tool in our collective toolbox.
I have been attending protest for and against a multitude of things for near on two decades, some large some small, some local some international.
So why are protest important:
- Solidarity Often times people think they are alone or in the minority in thinking strongly about something, bug public protest show them that there are other people like them out there and that it is ok to be angry and demand change.
- Debate Sure, many politicians will ignore many protest, some of them might even be able to ignore all protest. But rest assured everyone is paying attention and there are plenty of politicians that will see which way the wind is blowing and start a discussion in that direction.
- Democracy is more than just showing up to vote every four years. Ideally people are involved in local politics, in party politics in NGO's of interest, or a multitude of other activities that are fortunately available to us. One way to give smaller minority groups a large platform and a loud voice is a protest!
- Power Fortunately we live in something resembling "democracy", where nominally the power comes from the electorate. With a big angry public protest we can show that this is still true and that politicians will answer to us at the ballot box eventually.
- Energizing Once you attend protest and see you are not alone you might be inspired to take more direct action. Maybe actually join and organization and do something more sustainable than the occasional protest.
- Network In order to be successful we need to work together, a single person is not going to change the system. But protest put us into contact with like minded people and organizations that can grow and facilitate lasting change.
- Success does come eventually sometimes. Sometimes it might take years or decades for public opinion to shift fully, but to not even try is handing over the keys to tyrants.
I'm not going to pretend I am surprised at the distribution between willingness to go out and protest and ambivalence. It's mighty easy to complain online while sipping a warm drink from the comfort of ones couch. Actually following through with some direct action actually takes some commitment.
So I am not surprised, I am still disappointed though.
For inspiration some protests that did eventually change the world.
