A very interesting interview about protests as a strategy for forcing change and the evolution of this strategy through the years. It covers the challenges involved in the current landscape of political power (though they may have missed a key element of foreign lobby groups coupled with increasing level of corruption within the political establishment). The conclusion I’ve come out with watching this discussion is that when we start by focusing on how to protect rights to protest on a specific issue/subject matter and ensuring proper media coverage/preventing all forms of suppression, we need to know that we’re holding the wrong end of the stick because
- we’re operating within a largely rigged system when it comes to balance of power within the political establishment and those connected to it so at best results of such efforts will be mixed and reversible any which way you slice it and
- support for such efforts will vary because for each issue/subject matter there will be a split between supporters and opposers.
We need to begin by focusing on foundational elements in protecting democracy, eliminating political corruption, shutting down all forms of foreign lobbying, protecting all forms of free speech, etc etc, etc. In other words we need to first focus on sanitizing the political eco system from damage done to it within the last few decades – that also sets a very low threshold (growing ever lower) to our expectation when demanding change – and setting new democratic guardrails to prevent the abuse of power with a specific set of demands so that we don’t have to get into the habit of constantly putting out fires at every corner of the journey. This approach – I believe or hope – is likely to draw more public buy-in/support and will ensure a level playing field when it comes to debating/defending complex issues with differing views. I also believe that the proposition I mention below which I posted a while back could also be part of a long term solution when it comes to forcing the governments hand where there is persistent resistance to change while minimizing the need for public protests where protest may sometimes getting out of hand.
Just a thought.
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