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There seems to be rather a lot of them these days: demonstrations, marches, strikes. The power of the masses. Due to the way politics and along with it, capitalism works (or claims to work), one person with a lot of power generally decides what’s will happen. In democratic countries (countries with a democratically elected government) this one person is elected because they’re deemed the best candidate for this kind of power. They know what they’re going to do, and the majority of people agree with their plans. Of course there will always be some who disagree, no leader will ever achieve 100% approval ratings. But on the most part, after an election you get the most honest, best leader, and overall best candidate for the job.
This all seems to be forgotten not after too long. Give it a few months, one tiny illegitimate war, and people forget why they elected them in the first place. Truth is, running a country isn’t an easy task. In fact the only job with more expectation and pressure to get right, yet unbelievably bad odds, is the Newcastle Utd Manager.
You can believe in politics if you like. It’s fair to assume that most politicians do it because they want to help people. They want to increase the standard of living, provide cheap, quality goods and services, jobs and healthcare for everyone in their constituencies. But somewhere along the line they must get affected. At some point, they must turn – like a werewolf under a full moon, into the greed controlled, slavering, power-thirsty beasts they undeniably become.
So if you’re unhappy about something (which the majority of people seem to be), why not say something about it. Stand up. Vent your anger; let the authorities (the people who are the reason for, and theoretically have the power to stop the perceived injustice) know about it. After all, if you don’t tell them how you feel, how are they supposed to know you’re against them? You elected them, they’re still them, in their mind they’re still acting the same as they did before so why wouldn’t you still be behind them?
I never understood the point of protesting when I was a student. Which is funny, University campuses are usually the most fertile breeding grounds for protesters; partly because of students’ general assumptions that they’re better than everyone else. They talk of people wasting their lives in the rat race, selling their souls to Starbucks. Whilst they sit feeling smug about themselves, drinking their fair trade coffee, bought with their student loans, paid for by their ‘corrupt’ government. I was never in the mood for protesting. There were things that the government did which I didn’t personally agree with. But I just thought, ‘I’m sure there are lots of people who DO agree with them. Why should they do what I want to do, just because I want to do it?’
I was right. They shouldn’t change their policies based on my opinions. But I was also wrong. This isn’t what protesting is about. It’s not about saying ‘If you don’t do what I want, then I will kick and scream until you do’. It’s about getting everyone who feels a certain way together just to see how many of you there are. If everyone thought about it, EVERYONE… and all those who disagree, were to gather in the same area, we could do a head count. If there were more people in disagreement, we’d be within our rights to demand a referendum. In this instance, the majority of people COULD actually get what they wanted.
But really, how is this ever going to happen? I’ve been to one protest in my entire life. This was the anti-war protest when the then President of the United States visited the UK. I didn’t even really disagree with the war then. I didn’t know enough about the situation to feel I was able to provide an informed decision. I did however protest against President Bush being in charge of anything. Everything he’s touched in his entire life has turned to shit (which possibly could have been a prophecy that since his 8 miserable and debilitating years in charge, has only become more and more fulfilled). This is because the student community have such a bad record of sticking their nose in, and getting involved in protests all the time. They’re the only ones who have the time to do it!
Even now, every week I hear about some kind of protest happening in London, outside some financial institution, an embassy perhaps, maybe an international conglomerate. Where do these protesters find out about the protests!? Is there some kind of email newsletter that goes out, minutes before each one is due to start? Telling you where and what time, like some kind of secret party. Whether it is or not, it’s only the students who would be able to go. There’s no way I could go to a protest, no matter how much I disagreed with something. I have a job. I like my job! If I don’t go into work, I get upset, start wondering what I’m missing. Why does no one arrange protests for the weekend?! Or evenings even?
Despite all the problems surrounding protests, the poor timing, the bad organisation, the lack of control at times. I’d still go to one if I could. You might ask why.
Do I think I can change the world? Do I think it will make any difference me going, over me not going? Well, no I don’t, but that’s different. If you’re starting to worry that you can’t change anything and might as well not bother, then you’ve sadly missed the point.
Truth is, most of the things that get protested about… I completely disagree with. Most of it’s just the national press hatemongering its own government. This to me seems like a sort of treason. I don’t agree with protesters most of the time. I wish they’d just shuttup and sit down. They’d probably feel a lot happier with the way things were if they simply stopped moaning and stopped convincing themselves they had it so hard. (This is only for most protests, some are incredibly worthwhile).
Protesting IS a good tool for people to show their voice. Show that they DO have combined power. It’s not going to change any laws instantly. However it will over time let the rest of the public and the government know how people feel. Possibly even enough to convince them to start making excuses, maybe even a very, very small improvement! This is what a protest means to me, it is a celebration of living in a country with a democracy where we are allowed an opinion, and are well within our rights to voice it (without being shot).
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