Idealism a better response than protest?

[kbo234]

Here is an excerpt from money reform protagonist James Robertson's latest newsletter. It is from section 4. "Who is Peter cadogan?" The quote is interesting and challenging.


http://www.jamesrobertson.com/newsletter.htm#reform

Quote:

Some years later, "suddenly the penny dropped. You can say No, No, No and Out, Out, Out till the cows come home and it makes not a blind bit of difference. ... Protest is the wrong path. We saw the biggest demo ever just before the Iraq war began. It was treated with contempt by Bush and Blair".

His search for alternatives led him to lament the "sad fate of anarchism in Britain", to find that William Blake is "a philosopher, prophet and artist who never let me down", that historical idealism is the answer to historical materialism, and that

"Today, we have no spiritual/political flame. It is extinguished. It is up to us to relocate it and re-ignite it".

His practical responses, with the Gandhi Foundation and Northern Ireland as well as in London, have been based on the critical importance of small groups.

[John White]

I completely agree with the man. I would'nt say protest has NO place, but its so easy to get some cointelpro goons manipulating the show, and the media coverage is almost always badly slanted, resulting in the role of protest becoming contained as some form of mass emotional catharsis, allowing participants to vent their frustration and then go home thinking: "oh well at least we tried"

What is more, when people protest against a war, for example, that the general populace has been manipulated into being terrified in order to accept, with of course healthy doses of repeater propoganda, it polarises support for the war very quickly: "don't they realise how terrfied i am! And I want petrol for my car dammit!" Its no threat to the likes of Blair. Being Anti anything is really preaching to the converted

But, positive progressive alternatives are a very real threat to the power of the ptb: becuase it doesnt force people to support something by protesting against it, and erodes the very basis of elite control: people start to think that the elite arnt needed: and if the elite can be shown up as dull unimaginative plodders without the inspiration to find real solutions, all the better

[kbo234]

Yes.

Everything is of value in itself.

There is a place for protest but it rarely seems to have much effect.

I'm not sure the same can be said about violent protest though. Remember the Brixton riots (bye-bye 'sus' laws) and the Poll-Tax riot (hello 'Council Tax). I would guess that these riots were responded to deftly not because the PTB felt immediately threatened but because these sort of 'movements' if allowed to grow can develop into something very dangerous indeed.

We are many and they are few.

Some new mass movement will surely emerge in the coming months and years.