[extropy-chat] (POLITICS) Utility of Protest was :Exhibitionism (no, not THAT kind)

[The Avantguardian]

--- Mike Lorrey <mlorrey at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 
> 
> --- The Avantguardian <avantguardian2020 at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> > I have a question to put to those extropes that
> were
> > alive during the Civil Rights movements of the
> 60's.
> > What happened to the power of protest? Why were
> the
> > civil rights rallies and protests so successful in
> > this country while much bigger record setting
> protests
> > on both coasts against the War in Iraq completely
> > ineffectual. 
> 
> Because there isn't as much money being funnelled in
> from the
> non-existent eastern bloc countries, and Saddams
> credit ran out. The
> Iraqi insurgency is accurately being shown to the
> american people as a
> disaffected minority of former baathists in cahoots
> with islamist
> fanatics. Being as the agenda of both groups is
> obviously not liberal,
> only the hardcore stalinist nutters, other
> pathologically oppositionist
> mentalities and the easily duped think that the
> Iraqi people are
> against us.

Mike, this does not answer my question. Unless your
answer is that the U.S. Government only listens to
protests that are funded by communist countries. And
THAT would seem oxymoronic.

> 
> In Vietnam, it was easy to portray the poor
> vietnamese people as
> victims of imperialist US oppression, they are
> petite and attractive
> people, neat, and pacifist in their buddhist
> tradition, or so the media
> found it easy to portray. Decades of islamic
> terrorism, bombings,
> hijackings, etc have generated an implicit dislike
> of angry arabs in
> the American landscape. The media has an uphill
> battle in overcoming
> the ingrained first impressions that Americans have
> of angry arabs. As
> far as Americans are concerned, an angry arab is
> even more dislikable
> than a rude Frenchman.

Okay. So now you are saying that the government didn't
listen to protestors this time around because arabs
are not as "cute and fuzzy" as vietcong?

The answers you are giving me are not very informative
in regards to any general trends regarding the overall
utility of non-violent protest. Instead I seem to be
tripping some sort of pro-Bush propaganda circuit
specific to the current administration that is nearly
irrelevant to the question at hand. Please give me a
considered answer and not some canned anti-marxist
diatribe. I know you can do it... pretend that you are
an anthropologist from another planet if you have to.  

The Avantguardian 
is 
Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"The surest sign of intelligent life in the universe is that they haven't attempted to contact us." 
-Bill Watterson

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com