Because it's Saturday

03.03.2003

Freelance journalist Gerald Posner argues that many anti-war protesters may come to regret their current position, as he did. Here's an excerpt:

What were we marching for three decades ago? Certainly not for the right of North Vietnam to invade neighboring Cambodia, killing tens of thousands of civilians in a brutal war of submission. Nor did we raucously protest so that two million Cambodians could be exterminated under the Khmer Rouge. Not many of us would have been so enthusiastic in Sproul Plaza had we known that the North Vietnamese secret police would imprison, torture, and kill tens of thousands of political prisoners in a futile, but barbarous, attempt to "cleanse" the country of western influence.

Which raises a point made by many: Are anti-war protests just hip social events? A friend who was recently in San Francisco - during an anti-war protest - says that as many guys were there to meet girls (she did an informal poll) as for other reasons. I've a strange suspicion that many go to these protests because it's what one is supposed to do. I respect real protesters (even if I disagree w/ them), but how many so-called "direct action" activists are involved only because it's hip or cool. Looking at the costumes and insanely over-the-top pageantry at most protests, it's just too difficult to take them seriously.

Here's the lyrics to my favorite King Missile song:

I want to be different, like everybody else I want to be like I want to be just like all the different people I have no further interest in being the same, because I have seen difference all around, and now I know that that's what I want I don't want to blend in and be indistinguishable, I want to be a part of the different crowd, and assert my individuality along with the others who are different like me I don't want to be identical to anyone or anything I don't even want to be identical to myself I want to look in the mirror and wonder, "who is that person? I've never seen that person before; I've never seen anyone like that before." I want to call into question the very idea that identity can be attached I want a floating, shifting, ever changing persona: Invisibility and obscurity, detachment from the ego and all of it's pursuits. Unity is useless Comformity is competitive and divisive and leads only to stagnation and death. If what I'm saying doesn't make any sense, that's because sense can not be made It's something that must be sensed And I, for one, am incensed by all this complacency Why oppose war only when there's a war? Why defend the clinics only when they're attacked? Why are we always reactive? Let's activate something Let's fuck shit up Whatever happened to revolution for the hell of it? Whatever happened to protesting nothing in particular, just protesting cause it's Saturday and there's nothing else to do?

Posted by Miguel at 03:09 PM

Comments

I'm sure I could find you an equal, if not higher amount of people who are blindly going along with the Bush Admin. too. I think a more accurate point would be to say that some people are just stupid and will do whatever they're told.

It's too dificult to make generalizations like that- to say that the anti-war movement is backed by people just wanting to be in the 'in-crowd'. Equally possible and biting comments could be made for the other side too.

Posted by: vanessa at March 12, 2003 03:31 PM

Yep, you're right. And I do think that many people in the anti-war crowd are intelligent and principled. But somehow I suspect that it's not as "cool" to be pro-Bush as it is to be anti-Bush. Especially on a college campus. Plus anti-war protests are much more of a party atmosphere w/ the crazy costumes and Hollywood celebrities. But you're right, I think a lot of people are unthinkingly jumping on the Bush bandwagon.

Posted by: Miguel at March 12, 2003 03:31 PM

I'm highly doubting that the folks that stand at the intersection of Park and Michigan Ave. are doing it to be cool or hip. Unless by cool you mean frozen to the sidewalk.

I do think that there are a lot of folks, both pro and anti... that don't know why they are. I'm thinking that much more of the pro- side... mainly due to the fact that so many people think we should blindly follow the Bush administration soley because they are "in power" and it's somehow "un-American" to have thoughts other than those of the president. I can think of at least 15-20 un-educated/non-thinking Michigan News Agency customers that think this way.

(And I'm not talking about the crazies!)

I wonder how MNA customers stack up against the "average" American.

Posted by: Eric at March 12, 2003 03:32 PM

Yep, you're right, too. There's a lot knee-jerk reactionism on both sides. But come on. Have you seen the pictures of the mass protests? People wearing stilts, pointy scud missile bras, crazy papier-mache puppets? That's what I'm talking about. When you can't distinguish an anti-war protest from a Mardi Gras carnival, something's amiss.

Posted by: Miguel at March 12, 2003 03:33 PM