Genoa

path

Sorry, get an error message about the thread being closed when trying to post this, so I'll start a new one.If it was cancelled by an admin and they're reading this, I have edited out Shinji's slightly altered swear words.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Shinji:
You want a rough estimate? Fine, here's a rough estimate for you:
</font>

This is a silly argument. Unless you are some sort of mass telepath, then nobody has any idea how many people comprehend 'the issues'. I could easily say that every single one of them fully grasps the deeper meaning of protest and is a highly developed intellectual. How are you going to disprove me.

The tarring of protesters with the same brush as being student, hippie wasters (yawn, come on, give us something new would you..) has been brandished around before. I could label you as a under-sexed, jealous, just-barely-post-pubescent BBS troller with no life except his PC but I'm not in the habit of unfairly labelling people I dont know.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">

Some of them are just bloody sheep who want to go along to a protest because it's the DONE THING, because it's AGAINST THE SYSTEM MAN</font>

You could say the exact same thing about the vast majority of the planet. They just go along like sheep because its the DONE THING, because its WEIRD IF YOU DONT CONFORM with being cynical, working in their jobs until death, unhappy and menial, and not caring about anything further than their immediate sphere of their favourite TV shows and getting locked to block the pain out on the weekend. They abuse hippies and anarchists and people who travel to protests, because, dammit, I'm sitting here inside bored, AGAIN, watching them on the TV, complaining about them on bulletin boards, they're having so much fun and LIVING, and I'm not having any!!

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">but you don't actually tell us what the link between that and a hundred thousand folk shouting on the streets of Genoa is
</font>

Do you need it spelled out for you? Thousands of people with banners singing songs about ending corporate and state greed at the expense of others? Putting an end to harsh measures against immigrants (the Thursday march)? Destroying the places that perpetuate economic hardship (smashing and burning banks)? What more of a link do you possibly need?

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
what's the plan for FIXING this
</font>

Every one of the different 'colours' protesting in Genoa have different answers and solutions to problems in the world, which makes the current protest movement so exciting and interesting. Different solutions will work in different places, and some not, e.g. some sort of collectivism would work well for agricultural regions, whereas urban areas need more ecological and/or trade union movements to ensure a better quality of life for people in the cities. Nobody is claiming there is just 'one' answer any more, seeing things as a simple binary opposition to capitalism was a failure and collapsed in 1989. WE ARE THE ENEMY NOW. Pinks discussing tactics with the whites and the blacks means that all strands can work with each other to achieve common goalS.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
It's going to convince the politicians that they need to change the way the world works? </font>

It might convince ORDINARY PEOPLE to act on their own rather than wait for politicians to do it for them. Autonomous actions empower local communities and put democracy in action, two recent examples I can think of are the Critical Mass bike rides in Dublin and the invasion of the Old Head of Kinsale by ordinary people where politicians had failed to represent their interests. Protests like Genoa show people that everyone and anyone from all walks of life can be active too, rather than complacent.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
But you can't change it by screaming on the streets and making yourself look like a twát.
</font>

I am finishing replying to this here, I fail to see how putting your person on the street in support of a cause makes you 'look like a 'tw at'. Post modernism destroyed protesting, what a shame, the image supercedes the message, now people care more about the fashion they wear rather than the people who suffered and starved to produce it. Those people who break the mould are obviously delusional, why dont they sit back and relax, have a cold one, and watch Friends with the rest of us...

Anyway, there'll be another [path] out soon on the Limerick Soviet in 1919 and its relevance to Dublin and cultural 'tongs' in Dublin today. I'll post up here when its finished.

regards

---

http://thumped.com/thepath

JustHalf

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by path:
Sorry, get an error message about the thread being closed when trying to post this, so I'll start a new one.If it was cancelled by an admin and they're reading this, I have edited out Shinji's slightly altered swear words.</font>

Erm, I don't think you got it.

TwoShedsJackson

path, I closed it because it was degenerating into a stupid and incredibly tedious nitpicking session with some flaming thrown in.

If you wish to continue this debate with the people involved - do it by email.