Student Protesting Ain't As Popular As It Used to Be

From the New York Times. Apparently with the war on terrorism and the war on Iraq at full swing, students just aren't as radical as they used to be.

Or maybe something more interesting is happening: students are losing interest in protesting every little thing that happens lest they rob the act of protest of all its importance.

Quote:

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"It seems the professors are more vehement than the students," Jack Morgan, a sophomore, said. "There comes a point when you wonder are you fostering a discussion or are you promoting an opinion you want students to embrace or even parrot?"

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This reminds me of the time I saw Howard Zinn speak at Smith College. Zinn, some of you may know, is the author of "A People's History of the United States" and was one of the biggest figures in the integration movement of the 1950s and '60s. At the time he came to speak, in 1997 I think it was, there had just been a huge student protest at UMass where students took over the comptroller building in response to some decision to cut the American Indian Studies and other minority studies departments. And the Cassini space probe, a probe that carried a nuclear payload into orbit, was also a subject of widespread protest around Amherst and Northampton.

Now if there's anything Zinn knows, it's civil disobedience. This man went to jail and confronted the police many times for his beliefs, and thanks to the efforts of people like him we no longer have segregated public facilities. Many of the protesters were upset about UMass's decision to expel or suspend protestors in the wake of the comproller incident, so they were eager to get his opinion on the matter. One particularly concerned audience member asked, "Mr. Zinn, what do you think about the Cassini space probe? Do you think this is the sort of thing that could start a mass movement?"

Zinn looked puzzled for a moment (probably as he tried frantically to remember what the Cassini space probe was) and answered in his quiet, yet forceful way, "Well, only if the thing actually explodes." The crowd looked confused and then laughed once they realized what he had said -- if the Cassini exploded, it would provoke a mass movement away from the launch site. Then Zinn reminded the crowd of all the times he and his friends had been arrested, of all the things he had sacrificed for the cause he believed in. The subtext of his answers was this: Jesus Christ, you all are a bunch of pussies. If you can't even protest without fear of being expelled from school, if you don't even have that much committment and faith to your cause, then you don't have any business protesting.

So maybe students will finally become more selective about what they protest, and really mean it when they protest something, instead of just reflexively protest everything as a matter of habit.

Thoughts?

If there was a draft, there would be ALOT more protesting going on, eh. Its easy to support a war or remain silent when your ass isnt on the line.

=)

I really like Howard Zinn. Perhaps people are becoming more selective, but then I see people on TV protest stuff just for the hell of protesting something; for example look at the Dixie Chicks, France, Canada, Martin Sheen, anyone who protests this war is being bashed by people with nothing better to do than destroy CD's in the middle of the street or rename everything starting with French to Freedom. On a funny note, I was at the Farmer's Market to get some stuff for my garden and I noticed that someone renamed all the signs advertising French Taragon to Freedom Taragon. I laughed out loud and drew many curious looks. Just thought that was funny. :lol:

The same can be said for the anti-war people. I've seen a lot of people protest this war just to vent their frustration about the military, government, president, et al. Some I've spoken to look at this as a chance to do something like their parents did during Vietnam. I think it's all kind of silly because I don't think that too many people know all of what is going on. Lucky for us there are so many informed people on the TNL boards to chime us in on all the happenings. Kudos to everyone...including Stone and Carter. :D

SC

Well i hope it does turn to protesting when they mean it. I've seen so many kids screaming out ideals and just doing it because its popular with not even giving the ideas any thought. Of course thats human nature more than just being young though.

Here in the cali colleges we may be having alot of protests against Gray Davis soon.

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Originally posted by Astral
Well i hope it does turn to protesting when they mean it. I've seen so many kids screaming out ideals and just doing it because its popular with not even giving the ideas any thought. Of course thats human nature more than just being young though.

Here in the cali colleges we may be having alot of protests against Gray Davis soon.

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As we should. The guy's a fuckface.

I dunno.... protesting is pretty darn popular here. A lot of the recent anti-war protests have been organised or promoted by universities like Concordia, UQÀM, and McGill and they have attracted 250,000+ people - some of the biggest in the world. Every time I walk around downtown near the Concordia campus there are flyers up for the next protest/rally/etc. I know a few students/employees/grads from Concordia. People here tend to be very politically active and knowledgeable. It's very nice.


ps. Zinn rules. :)

perhaps students just aren't as angry. Or perhaps they're more intellectual, it strikes me that in a large body of protesters there are generally very few that really have a solid concept as to what and why they're prostesting, and maybe this is actually starting to matter.

I find the opposite to be true. The more intellectual and more informed people are, the far more likely they are to be an active protester.

I am extremely impressed (and somewhat happily surprised) at how knowledgable the average person seems to be in my neck of the woods. :)

It probably depends on where you are more than anything though.

or maybe people just have their own shit to take care of thesedays, I'm a college student but I also have to work for a living, and do other daily tasks and stuff that keep me busy. Living life and trying to get by basically - as bad as it may sound - I've no time for protests even though there are alot of them around here.

Judging by the sweet smell of marijuana present at every protest i've been to, we student protesters are still out in force :)

"I find the opposite to be true. The more intellectual and more informed people are, the far more likely they are to be an active protester."

Very true. I don't think that it's so much that the students aren't as active but rather people of all ages have demonstrated against this war. Students are still very much the backbone in these protests. There's another peace demonstration this saturday in London which I will probably attend.