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I Don’t Have the Time to Protest
Does that title sound bad? I’ve always thought about that. How did people make it work, even back in the 1960s? How did they keep food on the table and clothes on their backs and protest?
I see the protesters clashing with police on TV or social media (Twitter typically) and I still feel that protesting peacefully now is lost on this generation. Many times protesters (not all) will be overly aggressive and violent towards the police and they often damage property. (Of course, this kind of protest is not new either.)
I always wonder: Why is it that people don’t realize the power in words? Instead of yelling at the police or throwing things at them or fighting with people who don’t agree with you, how about taking a microphone and a speaker and speak out against the things that you want others to take notice of?
Even still, I remember that I have a family to take care of. Yes, I’m saddened and disappointed with certain failings of different people, from those in authority to those who are regular citizens. But I have to keep a roof over my head and help my wife with the bills.
How do you manage protesting while taking care of personal responsibilities? Any “professional” protesters out there in Ricochet-land?
Published in Policing
I think there are people who simply show up because they want to be part of something. They probably don’t have things that are meaningful in their lives, so they “Join the crowd.” It sound like you have a number of things that are meaningful in your life: working, tending your family, exploring the issues of the day. Those are the kinds of choices I honor.
Shelby Steele writes brilliantly about protesting in the 1960s with his family. I can’t find the particular passage but I always found it funny.
As a young lad Shelby joined his father protesting segregation at restaurants. Shelby’s father was a man of limited means who hated going out to eat and, as he put it, “Paying too much for lousy food.” In addition to the academic nature of these protests, the activity of protesting itself was incredibly boring. It was basically marching in a circle on a hot day.
Nowadays we romanticize the nobility and struggle and passion of these marchers. I myself did so when I first read about them. It’s hard not to. I suppose that’s why I find Shelby’s recollections so funny.
Yeah we could something a bit happy these days.
There are even more extreme stories than that. Slaves who had been separated from their families for years walked across states to reunite with their families. Slavery did not convince black men that they could abandon their family. The welfare state coupled with the sexual revolution too often did. It is always fascinating what motivates and demotivates peoples.
Join Jerome’s Group!
Ahem… you are assuming that these guys weren’t getting paid to march on the street (or take hostages……)…..
Another question is: where do protestors get all those rocks? I was in Latin America in the late 1980s, walking near a college campus where there was a student demonstration, complete with rock-throwing. Off to the side I saw a little leather satchel with hammers, pick-axes and other tools one would meed to break up paving stones to a more throwable size. So the protestors came prepared.
Around the same time in Mexico City, the local English-language paper ran a story about some of the militant student protest leaders at UNAN, the big national university in the south of the city, known as a leftist hotbed. They managed to get their academic records. Most of these “students” were in their late 20s at least, were going to school for years and years, and were C/D students at best in the softer social sciences. Clearly, professional students on somebody’s payroll.
Interesting! Thanks for commenting!
Keep in mind that the labor participation rate is around 65%. So there are around 50 million people with plenty of time on their hands.
I love the name Elijah, congratulations Jerome.
When I was in college I didn’t really protest much but a bunch of my buddies did. They tended to be marginal students anyway so missing class was no big deal. Mostly, they were there for the chicks. Apparently the Virtue Signaling made it much easier to make progress with girls out of their league.
Good point! Thanks for the reminder!
Thank you for the congrats and the comment!
I always wonder too, besides if people have the jobs to allow them to have the time to protest, if their loyalty to a certain can be bought or swayed. Just me thinking. I’m a bit of a skeptic when it comes to many “movements.”
I can’t remember the cause but I do recall a demonstration here in SF not long ago in which it came out that a bunch of the people were paid. They were also giving homeless people food to get them there and bolster numbers.
We live in a visual society. Words are…boring. Throw a trash can through a big window and you make YouTube. If you speak powerful words, you will more likely be judged on how you say those words (did you sound “too white”?) or the optics of the delivery of your words (were there enough minorities in the picture?).
Sad, but not surprising!
That’s actually a good point!