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plutherusI saw a bit on TV last night, where the newscaster was trying to figure out who the new protestors are.
They were obviously trying to cast them in a bad light, but couldn't figure out how. They talked a bit about the different groups organizing the protests, talked about how one was communist, and one was radical environmentalists, and how the various organizers would fight and couldn't get along, as if that was a strike against their cause. Completely oblivious to the notion that if two groups who can't get along, and constantly fight with each other, and are obsessed with internal politics can agree about something, perhaps that idea is worth looking into. Despite whatever problems the groups had with each other, real or imagined, they managed to organize two (so far) incredibly huge rallies against the war.
The other thing they overlooked completely in trying to figure out how these groups got so many people out is that most of the protestors are not members of any of the groups that organized it. They talked about how they use new tools like the internet to communicate with their members so more of them come out to the rallies. But they ignored old-fashioned tools like nailing pamphlets to telephone polls. That's how I heard about it. I was walking down the street one day, on my way to catch the train to work, and saw a pamphlet announcing the dates and times of a protest, by a group of environmentalists. The next day, I saw another one, and another, and decided to show up, since I'm not a big fan of the Bush Crusade myself. That's it, no high-tech communication methods, no SMS to remind me, no long-standing membership in any particular group, just some guy who saw a couple of pamphlets and decided to lend my presence as a silent reminder to the President that some of us aren't keen on his big adventure.
That's who the new protestors are: me, and a few million others who don't think bombing a country back to the stone age again sounds like compelling TV. Who would rather watch Joe Millionaire or Firefly reruns than Gulf War reruns.
We don't turn up in such big numbers because the communists and the environmentalists use such high-tech new tools, or because they're well-organized professional protest organizers (not to belittle the efforts of the organizers, it must have taken a lot of work). No, the reason why we turn up to these protests in such huge numbers, and will continue to do so, is because there's a hell of a lot of us.
They were obviously trying to cast them in a bad light, but couldn't figure out how. They talked a bit about the different groups organizing the protests, talked about how one was communist, and one was radical environmentalists, and how the various organizers would fight and couldn't get along, as if that was a strike against their cause. Completely oblivious to the notion that if two groups who can't get along, and constantly fight with each other, and are obsessed with internal politics can agree about something, perhaps that idea is worth looking into. Despite whatever problems the groups had with each other, real or imagined, they managed to organize two (so far) incredibly huge rallies against the war.
The other thing they overlooked completely in trying to figure out how these groups got so many people out is that most of the protestors are not members of any of the groups that organized it. They talked about how they use new tools like the internet to communicate with their members so more of them come out to the rallies. But they ignored old-fashioned tools like nailing pamphlets to telephone polls. That's how I heard about it. I was walking down the street one day, on my way to catch the train to work, and saw a pamphlet announcing the dates and times of a protest, by a group of environmentalists. The next day, I saw another one, and another, and decided to show up, since I'm not a big fan of the Bush Crusade myself. That's it, no high-tech communication methods, no SMS to remind me, no long-standing membership in any particular group, just some guy who saw a couple of pamphlets and decided to lend my presence as a silent reminder to the President that some of us aren't keen on his big adventure.
That's who the new protestors are: me, and a few million others who don't think bombing a country back to the stone age again sounds like compelling TV. Who would rather watch Joe Millionaire or Firefly reruns than Gulf War reruns.
We don't turn up in such big numbers because the communists and the environmentalists use such high-tech new tools, or because they're well-organized professional protest organizers (not to belittle the efforts of the organizers, it must have taken a lot of work). No, the reason why we turn up to these protests in such huge numbers, and will continue to do so, is because there's a hell of a lot of us.
