Thou doth protest...

Everywhere I snuck to read these past few days, I see IMF, WB, protest. And it seems that before the main event itself has started, Singapore has reapt nothing but "bad publicity" about what has been happening in this "much awaited" event.

I am not going to talk about that. That horse has been beaten, quartered, put back together, tenderized, and turned into basashi. I was more interested in the nature of protests in itself.

Protests, as it has been portrayed, is something that brings untold destruction in its wake. It is a manifestation of unreason and violence, in the form of a demented angry mob. The thing is, truly peaceful protests are not much covered by the media. There could have been 10 peaceful protests for every 1 violent one, and most of us would never know about them. Dull things and everyday things do not sell news. Scandals do. I wonder if this "negative orientation" is something that is in-built in the human psyche, or something that is conditioned.

I feel that the basic nature of protests, is to gain attention for a cause, regardless of whether it is for a good, bad or nonsensical. And it is one of the very few tools that is available to people in the "powerless" camp. The main reason protests usually involve a large number of people is that, that's about the only way they can gain enough attention. People who hold the power generally have no use for protests. They just act, because they can. Hence the problem of: you're welcome to protest all you want, we "hear" you (but that does not mean that we'll "do" anything).

As it is, it seems that most of the featured protests that have occurred in these kind of events, have been chaotic. With all the (very loud) background noises, it is more difficult for those who have truly legitimate reasons to make themselves heard. What happens when human beings are denied attention? They will act to gain it. And what's perceived to be the most effective way? Well, seems that violence is currently in the lead, nevermind that it does not directly help the cause, but hey, they grab attention!

Having said that, there is also this thing about "violent" protests. Often, there are instigators, and these instigators sometimes has nothing to do whatsoever with the main cause for the protest. Sometimes, they were even hired by people with ulterior motives just to rile the crowd. A peaceful crowd do not turn into a raving mob just because.

I think that protesters in general are already fighting a steep, uphill battle.
They are viewed as distruptions.
They face apathy and inertia.
Peaceful protests are very easy to ignore.
Violent protests have sealed their nuance as "negative".
They start out low in the scale of power and influence, and hence have to compensate by numbers - Large numbers result in control problem, and are prone to mob mentality instigation.
The issues they raise often would result in a "loss" for their opponent - These opponents usually have much higher prestige and power, and people do not like losing stuff.

I have to say I can symphatise with the "true" protesters. Even their "allies" are fickle at best.
There are just too many opportunistic people out there.