An Open Letter to Protesters
The following entry is by Matthew Dryden.
To all the bloggers, writers, and poets who are writing for revolution.
Hey, sup?
I don’t mean to sound pushy…but could you come up with another protest line?
Something like:
The Revolution is coming, it’s near, and it’s here!
Weapon of Mass Distraction!
Who Would Jesus Bomb?
Yes we can!
The wittier the pickup line, the better chance we’ll have at saving the world in our spare time. We can even use a non-descriptive game plan and just pump our fists in the air – don’t worry about it, we can think out a long-term plan later.
But I can’t help but wonder if this is the best way.
I mean, wouldn’t it be better to do something that would immediately benefit humanity? I mean, wouldn’t it be better become scientists or teachers? Hell, we could even take in a few homeless kids from our own country.
But I see these revolutionaries rushing past the helpless and homeless. They are far too concerned with the new renaissance. And I can’t help but think that today’s youth starting blindly protesting because it’s the only thing they’ve ever heard. Like our parents, we’ll hold our signs high, and chant some pertinent lie. And despite our best efforts to protest war, we end up corrupting our youth, causing riots and becoming weapons ourselves – with bullets on our tongues.
It’s time for a change.
Everyone knows that there’s a war going on – but while we’re holding up our signs, thinking we’re making our point; while kids are getting beaten up for what they believe in; there are suicide bombers who won’t be able to walk the down the hallway the next day with their fists raised high in the air.
They already sacrificed everything they had.
I’ve never protested anything in my life, but go ahead – try to throw me a good picket-up line. I’ll protest your waste of time because it is a tired, empty way to make a point. If America has taught me anything, it’s that you can spend all your time complaining…
Or you can make good use of your liberty and find a way to help that has some immediacy.
Matthew, thanks! I love the picture. Where does this come from? Still, I like it…
Back in the Stone Age, which you whippersnappers don’t remember, this was called Radical Chic. Now, it’s chic to be against the war, it’s darkly chic to be an anarchist, and it’s mainstream chic to be a Democrat. Ask someone the why part, though, and you’ll get a blank look more than anything. Meanwhile, the doers go on doing under the radar. You get a second AMEN, Matthew, from me this week.
And Jim, what’s up with the cool tweaks to the comment options? The twitter thing is cool and the option bar for the comments box is cooler! Thanks!
Wow, I have been feeling old lately especially since I am turning 31 on the 15th. Now I feel younger because I have now idea what it means to be “chic”
I have been testing some new plugins and the comments one is from Ajax for WordPress. I am glad you like it.
Thanks,
What would William Booth do? It is time for the invention of the 21st Century Salvation Army. I know the original is going extremely well financially, but as I discovered actually working with the homeless, it has lost its meaning to current clients. Booth and his wife were evangelicals in London. They came up with the idea of dressing, and acting, as an Army, in order to attrack the young. Pretty girls with tamborines did not hurt.
Today, most of the Salvation Army Corp members remain evangelical Christians, providing services to the multitudes in our cities, muli-racial, multi-cultural and oblivious to the Christian nature of the organization.
The trick – new organizing, based in today’s realities, attractive to young adults across cultures and with leadership provided by the base.
Revolution is never easy. Most of the true organizers were never thought of as chic, were also ahead of the curve, and did not care much about what the establishment thought of them.
chic, excellent comment. Thank you, Matthew Dryden is an excellent writer, IMO