Thursday, January 08, 2004
I totally ecklered today in my Social Movements class, it's like I had a bowel movement in front of everyone...ok not really, but I do find myself feeling like an ass.
The discussion of why protests diminish in relevance came up and I put forth the notion that maybe it was because public protests have become over time fairly mundane, regulated, orderly events conducted hand in hand with the police. I realize this isn't true for all protests, but it does seem like a number of protest events that I have attended or witnessed have been pre arranged events where the police have mapped out parade/protest routes. Nothing happens, there's no disruption of anyone's day and everyone goes home feeling as though they've accomplished something. I suppose you could argue that awareness of issues is accomplished, but the seemingly oversaturation of march protests and the clockwork like mundaneness of them, to me, seems to sap them of their relevancy and urgency and perhaps to some extent, their legitimacy. No spontaneity, to me, seems to be boring and at times useless. I'm not arguing this for all forms of protest, namely just the idea of march protests.
I put forth this opinion in class and I don't think I made any friends because of it. Oh it's not like the majority of the class cared what I was saying, I'm sure most of them tuned me out, but some girl seemed to kept giving me these weird "YOU ARE SO WRONG" looks and I felt like I had insulted her anti globalization sensibilities. The professor seemed to think that I was on crack as well. I think he's a pinko.
It's not actually any of the above that bothers me or makes me feel irritated, it's that I'm actually feeling rattled enough to write something about it that makes me feel like an ass.
I feel a little silly muttering to myself under my breath that "they just don't understand, can't they see" like some trench coat wearing old man who shuffles around his apartment in slippers trying to find the papers that prove his theory correct and makes fools out of all the nay sayers.
Welcome back to university, Einstein.
The discussion of why protests diminish in relevance came up and I put forth the notion that maybe it was because public protests have become over time fairly mundane, regulated, orderly events conducted hand in hand with the police. I realize this isn't true for all protests, but it does seem like a number of protest events that I have attended or witnessed have been pre arranged events where the police have mapped out parade/protest routes. Nothing happens, there's no disruption of anyone's day and everyone goes home feeling as though they've accomplished something. I suppose you could argue that awareness of issues is accomplished, but the seemingly oversaturation of march protests and the clockwork like mundaneness of them, to me, seems to sap them of their relevancy and urgency and perhaps to some extent, their legitimacy. No spontaneity, to me, seems to be boring and at times useless. I'm not arguing this for all forms of protest, namely just the idea of march protests.
I put forth this opinion in class and I don't think I made any friends because of it. Oh it's not like the majority of the class cared what I was saying, I'm sure most of them tuned me out, but some girl seemed to kept giving me these weird "YOU ARE SO WRONG" looks and I felt like I had insulted her anti globalization sensibilities. The professor seemed to think that I was on crack as well. I think he's a pinko.
It's not actually any of the above that bothers me or makes me feel irritated, it's that I'm actually feeling rattled enough to write something about it that makes me feel like an ass.
I feel a little silly muttering to myself under my breath that "they just don't understand, can't they see" like some trench coat wearing old man who shuffles around his apartment in slippers trying to find the papers that prove his theory correct and makes fools out of all the nay sayers.
Welcome back to university, Einstein.
# posted by Die Brucke @ 5:39 PM 
