Picket Fences

Imagine you're the ruler of a small country. You're benevolent, for the most part, everyone seems to be doing alright, and your government is a prosperous one.

But you've recently enacted a policy that has many of your people up in arms.

Would you listen to a protest?

The recent activity here in DC regarding the IMF and World Bank has people taking to the streets, and I'm wondering if it's completely fruitless. If it's all in vain. The central question that I'm wondering today is whether or not protests work.

It seems like there's a decent amount of examples on both sides, but it's clear when a protest fails. When a protest "works", it might not actually be the reason that an issue was resolved. Perhaps there were back door dealings, meetings, changes of heart. Maybe the protest was taking place after the government decided to change its stance.

There's a lot of money put into these things as well. A lot of time and effort by organizers. Is all of that just a wash? Would you even care to listen to a mob of strangers if you were running things?

This is our revolution, neutered.

Since we can't pick up arms against our government anymore - like we did in 1776 and off and on over the next 100 years - it seems like protesting is our way of walking up to the current power, pointing a finger at them, and yelling, "Bang!". It seems just as effective, too.

Have you ever protested anything? Or thought about it? Or been angry enough to?

Most of our founding political philosophers felt that the need for government came directly from a need to quell emotional responses. Instead of fire and passion, government should be built by reasoning and contemplation. Of course, Jefferson also claimed that a free society fed on "the blood of tyrants and patriots alike". The patriots he referred to being revolutionaries with weapons. I guess an even more overarching question (as I'm thinking about this) is one of how we change society.

How does one in the modern age go about affecting change on such a broad scale? If the world isn't turning out the way we think it should, are we powerless to stop it?