March to a new drum

/ politics / effective /

Matt Taibbi on the recent NY protests. This makes so much sense to me that it hurts. The ineffectiveness (nay counter-productiveness) of these latest protests is so glaringly obvious, that I'm amazed they keep going... This doesn't apply only to the States BTW, some of it certainly applies to the world over. Who can possibly disagree with the following:

"We are raising a group of people whose only ideas about protest and opposition come from televised images of 40 years ago, when large public demonstrations could shake the foundations of society. There has been no organized effort of any kind to recognize that we now live in a completely different era, operating according to a completely different political dynamic. What worked then not only doesn't work now, it doesn't even make superficial sense now."

or with the obvious truth of:

The people who run this country are not afraid of much when it comes to the population, but there are a few things that do worry them. They are afraid we will stop working, afraid we will stop buying, and afraid we will break things. Interruption of commerce and any rattling of the cage of profit—that is where this system is vulnerable. That means boycotts and strikes at the very least, and these things require vision, discipline and organization.

Time for a serious rethink of tactics, globally.