On Shouting at the Wall
Blubs of Verbs, Executive Papers, Life Lessons Comments (1)
To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men. – Abraham Lincoln
Let us speak of protesting. Protesting is a something i believe in as strongly as breathing, just as a believe some of the things people in protesting are just plain dumb. I believe i have a right to this opinion as much as they have a right to declare civil disobedience as a means of protest.
The reason I think some protest are dumb is because I do not believe at shouting at a wall hoping the wall will move. My voice does not produce enough force to move the wall nor I doubt my voice can be heard on the other side. Adding more protesters to shout does not make the wall any shorter or thicker. I do think it would be better to use all those people to surmount the walls, by climbing, using tools and even, moving using the combined brain power to make the wall crumble.
These examples of getting past the wall are also examples of the art of war; and all successful protests really display these common grounds. The campaign against tobacco involved chipping at the wall piece by piece and removing large bricks. The Campaign to roll back laws start with attacking the most minor “acceptable” behavior which is utterly outrageous: like first placing of a obvious religious symbol in the court house steps (and not in the general architecture fresco of a building).
Publicity is a means of protest. Calling attention to the wall, lets others know it must come down, or that the wall even exists. This page does not assume all publicity is bad -Never should calling attention to an injustice be seen as inane…, unless you are just shouting at the wall.
Of no doubt you are with me so far, yet wondering what has brought about such ferocity to the examples of protest. Let’s just say I am protesting; I am Protesting not protesting. I am advocating civil disobedience, but at no time am I advocating violence. Enough Violence will be done to the protesters to satisfy our thirst for blood.
Pretending the wall isn’t there, and walking away, is however not an option after you see it.
OceansOfThought @ July 14, 2008
I shall provide some context. In a strange bit of news today: virgin mobile decided that having a contest in which kids should post video’s of themselves stripping on youtube so that companies could donate clothing based on the number of views, was a good idea. I had all sorts of reactions when i read this story…, (it’s not true, how dumb, publicity stunt -they never intended on doing it-, etc) But one radio personality stated we shouldn’t discuss it…, it calls attention to the campaign.
I leave you with that.