[thechat] protests?

[Drew Shiel]

At 16:17 21/03/2003 +0530, Madhu Menon wrote:

>I believe in peaceful protest, but aren't there any laws to prevent 
>protestors from blocking traffic? How does getting someone late for work 
>teach the government a lesson?

   Well, in most vote-the-government-in countries (there's a word for that, 
and it's not democracy, but I can't remember what it is), the only way to 
teach the government anything is not to elect them next time, and that 
gives them a few years to do pretty much whatever they want.

   Further, in this case, the government as such of the US is not really 
responsible - it's George Bush Jr who's the sole instigator, and there's 
even less the normal folks in the street can do to deal with a rogue 
administrator, since voting doesn't seem to work, particularly in the US' 
strange election system.

   So about the only non-violent thing you can do that has an actual effect 
is to make an impact on taxes, by reducing the amount of business conducted.

   Although I doubt many of the protestors have thought that far through 
it; they're almost certainly still working on the notion that large enough, 
and noticable enough demonstrations will change Bush's mind. I'm guessing 
it's noticable they're going for, but I think there are better ways to do it.

   Right now, I think it'd be great to put Bush and Saddam in a medium-size 
room, and tell them that only one comes out alive. And then shoot whoever 
comes out.

   Drew.


Drew Shiel                               webmaster at swiftpay.com
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