Ghandi would weep
I’ve been thinking about protests, in part because of remarks on a thread at Jack’s Newswatch where Lindsay said Canada isn’t accustomed to protests. In my reply to Lindsay, I said that I didn’t have a problem with protests but I did have a problem with violent, disruptive, vandalism type protests. That seemed an incomplete answer to me and thus my thoughts.
Are Canadians unaccustomed to protests? I wouldn’t say so. If anything, we’re sick and tired of protests. After all, we’ve been putting up with the antics of protesters for decades. Where did GreenPeace, the granddaddy of enviro-activist groups, start off? Why, in Vancouver, of course, back in 1971. By my count, that’s more than three decades of protests.
Quick quiz #1.... why did Patrick Moore, one of the founding members of Greenpeace and it’s president for nine years, abandon Greenpeace in 1986?
We’ve had numerous protests over the years, up to and including several violent protests which attracted international attention... like the 1997 APEC Summit in Vancouver and the 2001 Summit of the Americas in Quebec. Then there’s the always popular native blockades, like Oka (1990), Gustafson Lake, Ipperwash and Burnt Church (1995) and, of course, Caledonia (2006 and still going).
Quick quiz #2... how many people died as a result of the native blockades at Oka? How many of you actually know the answer without using the Internet to find out?
Protests supposedly serve to get attention. That’s the whole purpose- to highlight whatever particular problem or perceived injustice. It is not, contrary to popular rumour, a way to find a solution and most protesters really don’t want a solution. They protest for attention so if they get a solution, they would have to find something else to protest.
The two tenets of cynicism are this:
1) No matter what they tell you, they’re not telling you the whole truth.
2) No matter what they’re talking about, they’re talking about money.
Use these two statements like a filter to cut through all the bullshit.
What is the purpose of getting attention? Simple: as an aid to fundraising.
Why do I object to outrageous protests? Well, it’s like this... if someone is legitimately seeking a solution to injustice, they don’t want to upset the very people who they’re lobbying for solutions. They don’t seek to embarrass anyone. They don’t destroy things. They make their points passively, intellectually and adamantly.
Many protesters refer to Mahatma Ghandi as their inspiration. Gandhi said "Civil disobedience is the inherent right of a citizen to be civil, implies discipline, thought, care, attention and sacrifice." Truth be told, Ghandi would quickly disavow himself from today’s protesters who defile the principles which Ghandi espoused. The problem is most protesters don’t know anything more about Ghandi than his name and most aren’t smart enough to spell that. They seize upon the expression “civil disobedience” and use it to justify their excesses.
Ghandi had specific principles which he adhered to strictly in his protest for the independence of his nation. Can you imagine the protesters of our generations adhering to such principles?
1. A civil resister (or satyagrahi) will harbour no anger.
2. He will suffer the anger of the opponent.
3. In so doing, he will endure assaults from the opponent, but must never retaliate; but he will not submit, out of fear of punishment or the like, to any order given in anger.
4. When any person in authority seeks to arrest a civil resister, he will voluntarily submit to the arrest, and he will not resist the attachment or removal of his own property, if any, when it is sought to be confiscated by authorities.
5. If a civil resister has any property in his possession as a trustee, he will refuse to surrender it, even though in defending it he might lose his life. He will, however, never retaliate.
6. Retaliation includes swearing and cursing.
7. Therefore a civil resister will never insult his opponent, and therefore also not take part in many of the newly coined cries which are contrary to the spirit of ahimsa.
8. A civil resister will not salute the Union Flag, nor will he insult it or officials, English or Indian.
9. In the course of the struggle if anyone insults an official or commits an assault upon him, a civil resister will protect such official or officials from the insult or attack even at the risk of his life.
Read through these principles and think of almost any of today’s protests. Are today’s protesters honouring Ghandi? I don’t think so.
During a recent pre-Olympic event, APC protesters disrupted a children’s choir by chanting and cursing before rushing and attacking police. Prior to the event, the police seized a bag filled with bottles which they observed a male dropping into a garbage can. Some were filled with paint. Others were filled with urine. The APC denied knowledge of same.
Ghandi would weep.
-Mac
#1 Moore says Greenpeace had achieved most of it’s original goals and had evolved into a fund raising platform than an environmental concern.
#2 Three... One police officer (31-year-old Corporal Marcel Lemay of SQ) and two indirectly attributed to the crisis (one from a heart attack after confrontation and other supposedly from reaction to tear gas).
Are Canadians unaccustomed to protests? I wouldn’t say so. If anything, we’re sick and tired of protests. After all, we’ve been putting up with the antics of protesters for decades. Where did GreenPeace, the granddaddy of enviro-activist groups, start off? Why, in Vancouver, of course, back in 1971. By my count, that’s more than three decades of protests.
Quick quiz #1.... why did Patrick Moore, one of the founding members of Greenpeace and it’s president for nine years, abandon Greenpeace in 1986?
We’ve had numerous protests over the years, up to and including several violent protests which attracted international attention... like the 1997 APEC Summit in Vancouver and the 2001 Summit of the Americas in Quebec. Then there’s the always popular native blockades, like Oka (1990), Gustafson Lake, Ipperwash and Burnt Church (1995) and, of course, Caledonia (2006 and still going).
Quick quiz #2... how many people died as a result of the native blockades at Oka? How many of you actually know the answer without using the Internet to find out?
Protests supposedly serve to get attention. That’s the whole purpose- to highlight whatever particular problem or perceived injustice. It is not, contrary to popular rumour, a way to find a solution and most protesters really don’t want a solution. They protest for attention so if they get a solution, they would have to find something else to protest.
The two tenets of cynicism are this:
1) No matter what they tell you, they’re not telling you the whole truth.
2) No matter what they’re talking about, they’re talking about money.
Use these two statements like a filter to cut through all the bullshit.
What is the purpose of getting attention? Simple: as an aid to fundraising.
Why do I object to outrageous protests? Well, it’s like this... if someone is legitimately seeking a solution to injustice, they don’t want to upset the very people who they’re lobbying for solutions. They don’t seek to embarrass anyone. They don’t destroy things. They make their points passively, intellectually and adamantly.
Many protesters refer to Mahatma Ghandi as their inspiration. Gandhi said "Civil disobedience is the inherent right of a citizen to be civil, implies discipline, thought, care, attention and sacrifice." Truth be told, Ghandi would quickly disavow himself from today’s protesters who defile the principles which Ghandi espoused. The problem is most protesters don’t know anything more about Ghandi than his name and most aren’t smart enough to spell that. They seize upon the expression “civil disobedience” and use it to justify their excesses.
Ghandi had specific principles which he adhered to strictly in his protest for the independence of his nation. Can you imagine the protesters of our generations adhering to such principles?
1. A civil resister (or satyagrahi) will harbour no anger.
2. He will suffer the anger of the opponent.
3. In so doing, he will endure assaults from the opponent, but must never retaliate; but he will not submit, out of fear of punishment or the like, to any order given in anger.
4. When any person in authority seeks to arrest a civil resister, he will voluntarily submit to the arrest, and he will not resist the attachment or removal of his own property, if any, when it is sought to be confiscated by authorities.
5. If a civil resister has any property in his possession as a trustee, he will refuse to surrender it, even though in defending it he might lose his life. He will, however, never retaliate.
6. Retaliation includes swearing and cursing.
7. Therefore a civil resister will never insult his opponent, and therefore also not take part in many of the newly coined cries which are contrary to the spirit of ahimsa.
8. A civil resister will not salute the Union Flag, nor will he insult it or officials, English or Indian.
9. In the course of the struggle if anyone insults an official or commits an assault upon him, a civil resister will protect such official or officials from the insult or attack even at the risk of his life.
Read through these principles and think of almost any of today’s protests. Are today’s protesters honouring Ghandi? I don’t think so.
During a recent pre-Olympic event, APC protesters disrupted a children’s choir by chanting and cursing before rushing and attacking police. Prior to the event, the police seized a bag filled with bottles which they observed a male dropping into a garbage can. Some were filled with paint. Others were filled with urine. The APC denied knowledge of same.
Ghandi would weep.
-Mac
#1 Moore says Greenpeace had achieved most of it’s original goals and had evolved into a fund raising platform than an environmental concern.
#2 Three... One police officer (31-year-old Corporal Marcel Lemay of SQ) and two indirectly attributed to the crisis (one from a heart attack after confrontation and other supposedly from reaction to tear gas).
Labels: Canada, Ghandi, protest, protesters
posted by Mac at 12:09 AM
5 Comments:
You're the Solomon of the interwebs Enig-Mac.
All that and I've got great legs.
I'm not quite sure what your point is. "Outrageous" protests are ridiculous and counter-productive. Is there something else I'm missing? Seems to me you could have spared yourself a lot of keystrokes there, bub.
What? Miss an opportunity to polish my pseudo-intellectual rhetoric?
Heaven forbid.
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