Over three years ago, I wrote a letter to The Spectrum expressing my annoyance of a workers' rights protest here on campus. I was a freshman, very apathetic and mostly frustrated that people shouting for the rights of workers were also flying anarcho-communist flags-as if that was representative of UB's custodial staff.
For some reason, protesters have always irked me. The overt extremism never seemed welcoming, and the loud shouting and sign-waving demonstrated more self-satisfaction than selfless dedication.
Many protests have held serious weight in changing the cultural and governmental mindset in the past 50 years, but many more have done absolutely nothing. It seems that protests are most effective when the people are being oppressed or violently restrained (i.e. Vietnam War protests, Berlin Wall protests). Now in America, demonstrators are utilizing the outdated, glorified tradition.
Anti-violence demonstrations, for one, always confused me. The intent is clear: they are anti-violence, but who is pro-violence? Those who participate in violent acts are never the ones who will be convinced by way of leaflets and awareness, so who is the target audience?
The notion that getting active is helping their cause can be construed that being inactive is simply not enough. Living our daily lives as good people have been undermined by those who got up and proclaimed those intuitions as volitional.
We hear about these awful happenings and feel incredible sorrow and distress - which we all should. But, merely exclaiming your stance on universal issues such as violence always seemed to me as a selfish way to "get involved" in a cause that is embedded in us as humans.
When people haven't been directly affected by an act of violence, there's a feeling in us that wants to stand up against the unjustifiable action.
By default, we as humans are anti-violence. By default, we are anti-poverty. By default, we are programmed to speak out against everything we disagree with. But how do these events that are "raising awareness" do anything productive? Are we as a society unaware that rape and abuse are bad things?
Many of us have witnessed the effects of issues like domestic violence, but those issues are human issues that shouldn't be bastardized into political ones, following the same formula of action. Essentially, these demonstrations are a way of patting oneself on the back for ordering refreshments and wearing anti-violence T-shirts.
Awareness organizations and demonstrations could stop masking the intentions as raising awareness, when donations are a perfectly suitable request to any justified cause.
Maybe, however, it's a good thing. Maybe the fact that people are combating the timeless issue of violence illustrate how truly free we are from oppression.
Not every issue must have opposing viewpoints, and the "with us or against us" ideology has often generated more opposition than intended. The issues that become politicized often alienate even those who are actually affected, while demonstrators protest rape by walking in high heels.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
