[506] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: Protesting Fun?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Christopher D. Beland)
Thu May 3 15:42:00 2001
Message-Id: <200105031941.PAA07899@Press-Your-Luck.mit.edu>
To: "Richard J. Barbalace" <rjbarbal@MIT.EDU>
cc: mit-talk@MIT.EDU
In-reply-to: The events that comprise the history of the universe.
Date: Thu, 03 May 2001 15:41:17 -0400
From: "Christopher D. Beland" <beland@MIT.EDU>
I've certainly enjoyed protesting say, the Aramark monopoly, or
outside of the Institute, Dr. Laura. Having an excuse to stand up and
yell, or approach passers-by is interesting; it's exciting to have a
cause behind you and actually be doing something tangible about it,
changing people's minds or informing them one at a time, in a very
visible way.
But maybe the MIT way of getting what we want is better. Maybe
constant lobbying, research, and intellectual debate results in more
willingness on the administration's part to listen to students.
Harvard's administration has basically taken the "we're not going to
talk about this until you start being civil" approach. Which is quite
warranted, in my opinion. If anyone at Harvard could cause the
adminstration to instantly cave to their demands just by occupying a
building, then some bizarre and chaotic form of mob rule would arise.
It's akin to negotiating with terrorists.
But it seems like such tactics have been effective before, right?
Like in Vietnam? I propose to you that it was actually the court of
public opinion that was most important, not any threat of physical
force or disruption. Had the public not supported the protests, they
either would have been put down, or escalated to the point where civil
society was threatened.
Just look at what effect public opinion has had on MIT's housing
system. Maybe the lesson is, if you can't effect change yourself,
convice a lot of other people to agree with you and put public
pressure on the people who do have the power.
This reduces the power of physical protest to generating publicity,
with the possible exception of "direct action" (but even that seems
unsustainable in the face of powerful adversaries).
So, power to the people with the pens, or something.
Beland
Who has just realized that if everyone stops flaming, the weather will
improve, and we can send all of the electrons we'd save to California,
where people need them more. After all, it's only fair. 8)
===============================================================
Christopher Beland - http://web.mit.edu/beland/www/contact.html
MIT STS/Course 6 (EECS) - MIT Athena User Interface Project
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