The Purpose of Protest

I grew up during the 60’s. I saw and kind of participated in the protest against the Vietnam War. I guess doing what everyone else was doing, I went along. During those war years and as I got closer to draft age, I worried, like all young men did. We all knew the war was bad, but we really didn’t want to be forced into the service. I have very bad eyes and probably had a deferment, but all it took was an Army doctor saying that my eyes weren’t that bad and I was in.

One of the jokes after the war was that guys went to the college protests because it was a chance to meet girls. I guess if you showed up and yelled and screamed, you might get lucky. I wasn’t at those kinds of schools nor was I really old enough during the height of the war to go to meet girls. But it seems to be a pretty relevant comment.

Lately, there have been more protests than usual. Arizona, the BP oil Spill and the Anti-Bank protests come to mind. . I’ve come to a change of heart on protests, probably because I no longer am interested in meeting girls and now wonder what good comes of these. My new position is nothing happens because someone has a protest. Just like the Vietnam War rallies and protests probably didn’t change any one’s mind that the war was wrong.

Let’s define though that there are protests that are necessary. The Buddhist Monks during the Viet Nam War who burned themselves. Others like the lone protester at Tiananmen Square, the Mother’s March in the Philippines, the Civil Rights Marches in the South. These were beyond protest to a form of insurrection. The Monks gave up their lives to inform people that the war was wrong. The lone protester is believed to be still in prison and the Mother’s March and Civil Rights Marches could have ended in the deaths of the people who marched. So when I speak of protests here, I mean the sign waving, chanting, marching type of protests.

So what purpose does a protest have? Basically, the only purpose is to channel efforts to support a cause. However, the people that participate usually agree with your beliefs and frankly are the audience you hope to reach. There may be media coverage or you can create your own YouTube coverage of an event. And the people that will see it will either total agree or will vehemently disagree with your cause. So are you going to change any minds? No. The people that see any 10 second view of the protest may see some witty signs, but I think 20 words on a poster will not give anyone a head slapping moment and make them change sides. The purpose of the protest is to me, the ability to see if you can bring people together. It is marketing. If your group can muster 1000 people, maybe when another similar cause comes up, they might call you to get some of those people to a rally. Except those 1000 people probably are in the same 5 groups which all compete for the bodies.

So again, why hold a protest? I don’t see a reason. You won’t educate anyone on the problem with a few signs. You won’t change anyone’s mind because of a chant or the fact you are out there. You won’t get the people that you are protesting against to suddenly change their behavior. But someone got you out there and that might impress some people. As I thought about this, it no longer impressed me.

So instead of a protest, think about how you can change people’s minds or change their awareness of the problem. If you are attempting to change a company’s actions, what would make them change, such as a boycott. Companies don’t have shame so you can’t get them to change like you can a person. Corporations only are interested in profits. If you want to get people to change their opinions, then education works better than cute signs. Yes, a protest looks like education, but only to the people that already agree with you. You want to reach out to people that don’t agree with you. That can be done with flyers, teach ins or ads and nothing works as well as one-to-one dialog. And the time and money used to organize a protest could be used to help the cause you are protesting.

Now, I don’t mean that people shouldn’t protest. This is a right and privilege we all have. But in based on civil and rational discussion, a protest should be viewed in light of the probable outcome. In most cases, I believe we should save the shoe leather and get off the street. Nothing is improved by protests and I believe everything can be changed with dialog.