[thechat] Jan 18 peace march

aardvark roselli at earthlink.net
Sun Jan 19 21:22:14 CST 2003


> From: "Kevin Stevens" <kjs at ratking.co.uk>
>
> We have one in London on (I believe) February 15th. I went on one of
> the marches last year, always good fun. I never know whether satire
> about such serious issues is ever funny, but this picture did make me
[...]

satire is always funny... the more sacred the topic, the more welcome
the satire... except maybe kicking kittens...

the thing about marches is that they are sort of a satire in their
own right... sure, there have been some good, useful marches, like
when a gajillion people march on washington and martin luther king,
jr. gets up there and talks about the gajillion people that were
otherwise ignored...  that's a good way to wake people up... some of
the womens' suffrage marches were probably even a good place to meet
chicks...

but marching in your home town, which is so far removed from the
power center and decision makers, is nothing more than a method by
which to make oneself feel that he/she is doing something... it helps
most people feel better for owning their SUVs that guzzle way too
much gas, which, btw, isn't a logical leap to see as a direct cause
for the conflict (assuming one believes the war for oil postulation,
personally i think it's war for the sake of asserting ourselves again
and maybe opening up some cheap markets)...

most people recognize that marches are just the most vocal majority
of a particular side of an issue, and know that the people sitting
home are still split about the topic... nobody marches *for* war,
nobody marches *for* abortion (women's rights, yes), because it's too
easy to spin that as bad... so people march for safe topics... topics
that a slanted media is happy to cover... topics that are safe, and
that people can't disagree with when framed by the media, even if
they don't believe in the core issue...

bringing kids to marches is, IMO, just the first step of a parent in
asserting his/her own values onto his/her children (brainwashing)...
which is not a bad thing in and of itself, presuming the parent also
teaches the child how to question... but i hate seeing kids waving
placards (anti-abortionists are the worst) without a clue about what
it all means -- they are just used as tools by their parents to bring
up head counts and appeal the more lilly-livered of the populace...

instead, people should be taking more insidious steps to push their
own agendas... someone who is really committed should do more than
march... in fact, the time spent marching can be better used to do
things like drive to your representatives' offices, go door to door,
run for election to be the first person in government to not be
corrupt, or otherwise spend the energy doing something other than
enjoying a nice day on the street with pretty signs while police on
overtime further tax the public debt...

while all those people were marching, they weren't home doing more
research, or otherwise trying to get the word out...

instead of marches, let's call them parades...

incidentally, this is cynism, not anti-anti-war talk...

although i think a few small, well-placed nuclear devices can keep
the third world third, and finally remove our dependence on oil (by
removing the oil)...

and nobody has to die...

but i like to try extremist views out for size...

--
my latest book project:
  Web Graphics for Non-Designers
  http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1904151159/evoltorg02-20
  ISBN: 1904151159






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