Whining as Strategy

After eight years of Bush and nearly three of Obama, one might reasonably expect professional activists and other community organizers to come up with something more effective than protests and placards. Indeed, given their ineffectiveness in altering public policy, one might think they would be inclined to reconsider the conventional strategy of whining their way to power. It has never worked before, and it isn't working now.

Yet, I watch many unions and social justice activists continually investing their time and resources in mass protests, marches, and media campaigns that are all but ignored by those who currently wield power under the globalization agenda. If anything, I expect these titans of thievery are reassured and amused by how predictable and easily controlled or manipulated these groups and events have become. It's like watching reruns of silly soap operas where B actors hit their lines and marks under the guidance of off-screen directors.

The professionalization of protest under the guiding hand of derivative philanthropy, of course, is part of the system of keeping democracy down, but that doesn't mean the rest of us have to follow their lead. After all, in this fight to the death over whether we can live lives of dignity and fulfillment, or succumb to a miserable existence of impoverished expectations, we need access to more effective weapons of resistance. When we start to see strikes, blockades, sabotage and acts of civil disobedience against the power elite, we will know the whining paradigm has finally died; until then, it is all high drama.