Are the worldwide protests helping or hurting? That is the question.
As Alexander Haig once stated “they can protest all they want so long as they pay their taxes”. This statement is pretty telling in my opinion.
Now accompany that statement with the question, has protesting and hitting the streets really brought any change in policy, banking, wars etc.? Unfortunately, the answer clearly is no.
Let us take a look at some examples:
The Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a political movement for equality. Between 1950 and 1980 the movement took the form of campaigns of civil resistance.
The aim was to achieve change by means of nonviolent forms of resistance. But the campaign of “nonviolent forms of resistance” was accompanied, or followed, by civil unrest. In some cases armed rebellion.
When one thinks “civil rights movement” a few things probably comes to mind right away. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, sit-ins, and the hosing of black demonstrators, just to name a few.
I have a lot of respect for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and the numerous students that stood tall against oppression.
I want to make clear that I am questioning the effectiveness of demonstrating/protesting to bring about change. I am in no way saying that these individuals are “dumb” for the actions they took against oppression.
When one looks at the civil rights movement, even just briefly, it doesn’t take long to see that a movement designed to be a form of nonviolent resistance turned out to be murder after murder.
Medgar Evers, a field secretary for the NAACP was shot in the back in front of his 2 small children.
Then there was the Birmingham church bombing on September 15, 1963. This church was a center for civil rights meetings. The explosion killed 4 young girls aged 11 to 14 with 20 others injured. This was during Sunday school mind you.
Then assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I don’t think I need to elaborate there. These few examples are just droplets of water in an ocean of violence being used to quell a nonviolent movement.
Now ask yourself, are our civil rights being acknowledged, let alone respected today?
The anti-war movement
The anti-war movement really speaks for itself. Again, I am in no way saying that we shouldn’t speak out against the illegal, endless wars that are going on. I’m merely questioning the effectiveness.
The 60′s saw an explosion in anti-war protests. The Vietnam War sparked rage on college campuses and in middle class suburbs alike.
The anti-war movement was one of the most diverse forces in the 20th century US history. This rage manifested in the form of massive protests. One particular protest in 1969 saw between 250,000 and 500,000 people in Washington, D.C.
Who can forget about the tragedy at Kent State University? May 4, 1970 guardsmen fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds killing four and injuring nine. One of the injured suffered permanent paralysis.
Some say it was rallies and protests such as this that ended the war by means of threatening revolution hence needing the troops here at home.
Others feel it was the Nixon Administration that was responsible for the end. This is still debated today.
In 2002 it was estimated that well more that 100,000 were in attendance in Washington, D.C. protesting against any military action in Iraq.
French academic Dominique Reynie states that between January 3 and April 12, 2003, 36 million people worldwide took part in almost 3,000 protests against the Iraq war.
Now you would think that 36 million people worldwide clearly saying, “We don’t want this war!” would have some sort of effect, right? Wrong.
News flash: we are still in Iraq. It seems pretty apparent that they just do what they want, populace be damned. Just hand over your sons and daughters and keep paying your taxes.
The Occupy movement
Now we have to take a little bit different look at this. In the year 2012 the government has the NDAA at its disposal.
For the average activist who puts their feet to the pavement and gets out into the street, this is extremely scary. Granted, NDAA should scare the hell out of everyone, regardless of if they are an activist or a stay at home mom.
For the activist, though, it’s particularly disturbing. Indefinite detention of American citizens in military custody without charge or trial. Wow!
When the Commander in Chief signs something like this into law, there should be no question that we are a police state.
Editor’s note: the fact that the National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2012 (NDAA) is wholly unconstitutional, perhaps even “anti-constitutional” as some have said, has been confirmed by a federal judge in New York. If one need any more confirmation of what we have been talking about for months here at End the Lie, the judge’s ruling provides just that.
We now live in a country where you could potentially be “suspected” of terrorist involvement and be detained minus one little element, a trial:
When Occupy went global in a matter of months I had questions.
The first was quite obvious, how did this rapid expansion come to be? My question was answered soon enough.
George Soros, through the nonprofit organization Alliance for Global Justice, is apparently funding the Occupy Wall Street movement. From September 17 to October 19, 2011 OWS had pocketed $435,000.
Why would they want to create a movement that would cause so many problems at the local level? I believe that this is, in a sense, a dry run.
Start a movement (has to be global), get the police state apparatus fine tuned (drones, tanks, weapons, and ammunition) then wait for the bottom to finally fall out of the economy and you are all set and ready to go when civil unrest kicks off here Greece-style.
By now I’m sure that some are asking, “Then what do we do? Just sit and do nothing?”
Well, to be honest I don’t have a definitive answer to this question just yet. I do, however, have a definitive answer to, “Is this really working to bring about a free society?” No, its not.
The anti-war movement was great but we’re still in the longest war in US history with no end in sight.
The civil rights movement was commendable but now we have the NDAA which eradicates all rights.
Similarly, Occupy brought about no clear change or even an indication that any is on the way.
There is no doubt that each and every one of us can bring about change and should strive for a more peaceful society, that is not in question.
What is in question is if signs, mass gatherings, bullhorns and catchy chants are the methods to bring about this change.
Don’t forget what Alexander Haig said “they can protest all they want so long as they pay their taxes”.
Edited by Madison Ruppert
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