A rally on Pennsylvania Avenue across the street from the White House
Michael Reynolds/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
All around the US today students are protesting gun violence(1), folks in Cali are protesting Donald Trump's visit to examine border wall prototypes(2), and students across the pond have occupied the Arts Tower at Sheffield University in support of the current strike action by the University and College Union(3). I'm a fan of protesting, it's a fundamental way to express negative emotion you feel about an issue and to get it out healthily and creatively. Violence is always something we should aim to avoid, so these events are like pressure valves letting off some steam. That's a very good thing.
I don't really know if they work, historically they've had great success, but the world has changed. Perhaps they have impact in a nonlinear sort-of way - everything does - but it's clear that our leaders don't respect the will of the people. It surprises the cynical observer of very-recent history that protest hasn't evolved or become a mainstay of the landscape. Street protests are always a good measure of how many folks are concerned about an issue. There'd be more concern if folks had the free time to concern themselves, but many are forced to spend their hours pursuing financial stability. I've even heard a term coined for folks in this position - the precariat.
A cynical man might see that and draw the conclusion that having many folks in precarious financial situations forces them to work a lot and thus they don't have time to protest or even keep up with the news of the day.
...I'm pretty cynical.
Another news item I had to giggle over was some other ex-Russian spy getting mysteriously poisoned by 'Russian' poison(4). This will no doubt be used as sanctimonious justification to further vilify those evil Russians by the Brittish media in collaboration with the US/Israel Axis of Evil as they continue their propaganda campaign of scapegoats and slander against the only nation in the world to stand up to our psychopathic oligarchs.
It's also a total rehash of the Litvinenko affair(5). These guys have zero creativity. They don't even make sequels, they just reboot the same tired ideas over and over again. This is also how you know there's psychopathic influence in Hollywood - but I digress.
Thing is, when you live in a world run by psychos with way too much money, there's little that protest can do to change the core structural problems. If you think it's a good idea - go for it. I don't want to dissuade anyone from self-expression. The best way you can get ahead in this world is by making yourself a more productive person. Try hard. Pay attention to details. Read. Never stop learning. Communicate with an open-mind. Be wrong and be okay with it. Talk to people. Learn active listening.
A lot of those life-skills will pay off over and over again, whereas sometimes a protest is just masturbatory self-indulgence. I'll let the discriminating reader draw their own conclusions. You're clearly intelligent.
1.) http://people.com/crime/students-walk-out-protest-gun-violence/amp/
2.) https://www.rt.com/usa/421209-trump-inspects-border-wall-california/
3.) https://thetab.com/uk/sheffield/2018/03/14/breaking-sheffield-students-occupy-the-arts-tower-in-support-of-the-strikes-30811
4.) https://joequinn.net/2018/03/13/skripal-likely-poisoned-by-british-intelligence-in-effort-to-smear-and-silence-russian-world-view/
5.) https://joequinn.net/2018/03/06/mi5-poisons-another-russian-asset-to-smear-putin-in-ongoing-propaganda-war/