Counter-culture and protests, once so influential and known for reviving the pulse of entire generations as it did in the late 1960s anti-war movement and the early ‘70s civil rights movement, have fallen to the wayside in American politics. For some people, participating symbolically toward a cause has personal rewards. But despite the abundance of sensationalized small gatherings, our society has moved beyond substantive demonstrations.
Today, we like to be subtle. Gauging the effectiveness of a protest is moot. It’s a symbolic gesture that doesn’t really hold much sway in political health or public policy. With the advent of blogs and Facebook or Twitter, where posting a link to a news story and your opinion on it can be done in less than a minute, we’ve expedited all of the pains associated with organizing a physical movement. It seems now that links and shares are taking the place of physical bodies in a public space.
However, sometimes a violent protest can also be the exception to the rule. The tens of thousands of student and lecturer protesters in London on Nov. 10 made their stance on the British government’s tuition hikes and 40-percent cuts in teaching budgets very clear. According to National Public Radio, the protest began peacefully but was taken over by a rogue group of extremists, which, although contrary to the initial intentions of the protest organizers, still served as an effective way to bring global attention to a national message.
But it doesn’t always have such a Doppler effect.
Saturday afternoon, 50 police officers shot pepper spray, rubber bullets and tear gas into a riotous protest started at a planned neo-Nazi demonstration to protest the blocking of certain provisions in Senate Bill 1070. Unfortunately, the demonstrators were the peaceful ones being attacked by violent protesters, and things became not about discussing an issue, but physically releasing the tension that an issue has on our emotional well-being.
Additionally, the people who were arrested at the end of July for chaining themselves together and blocking the driveway to the 4th Avenue Jail, and those who supported their efforts in an extension of their protest at the Maricopa County Downtown Justice Center Tuesday are not protesting SB 1070 as much as supporting people who did.
Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert made it very clear with their Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear that protests are antiquated.
The truth is, America is tired of extremes. They don’t allow for compromise and stifle progress. Although it’s less glamorous, and certainly less romanticized, the power of persuasive writing and arousing the online population into drafting change might just be the social movements of the 21st century.
