All That Disruption
by Joe La Sac
In 1968 the protesters said they came to the Democratic National Convention to cause disruption. Those disruptions in the streets have had more of an impact on American culture than did the other issues involved at the convention itself, such as the seating of racially-mixed delegates, credential and platform battles, and even the Democratic Party’s nomination of Hubert Humphrey as their candidate for president – who lost to Nixon’s landslide victory.
Today disruption in the streets is happening everywhere. Most of these disruptions are in fact not even covered by the mainstream media. If you don’t believe this, read a blog like “Bombs and Shields“, which keeps track of anarchistic disruptions and similar events happening almost each day worldwide. Or read a similar blog “Social Rupture” which has been keeping more up to date with such activities. Direct action against the state is happening all around us, yet we are hardly aware of its pervasiveness. We have become immune to disruption.
Discuss.
August 18th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Obviously there’s a suppression of these events in the media because A. Most governments don’t want most citizens to know that people are actually dissatisfied with the way things are going. Furthermore if people were aware that there was such potential for destruction anywhere, they would be afraid an blame the government for not making their country more safe. B. The media knows that protest coverage doesn’t really sell quite like the Olympics.
I don’t think that the majority of Americans are really uninterested in knowing about protests, I believe a lot has to do with suppression of information and a decision by mainstream media to focus on it. That’s especially why blogs like “Bombs and Shields” and “Social Rupture” are so important.
Thanks for the linkage to those, Joe.
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August 19th, 2008 at 12:48 am
Most of those disruptions can be traced back to someone’s outrage at their government. But I guess you’re right – people would blame governments for not making them safe instead of taking it upon themselves to create better societies.
Also, in a country where we have more imprisoned than anywhere else, I find it interesting that our media focuses on “crime” so much. Most of this type of stuff would not be considered ‘protest’ as much as just ‘crime’ by most media, as if to diminish its message.
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August 19th, 2008 at 8:37 am
Joe,
you were planning on going to the DNC to film the protests correct? What sort of protests do you expect to see there? Anti-globalization? Anti-NAFTA? Or people angry the D’s have not ended the war in Iraq? Do you expect it to get violent and the Denver police to have to use their secret prison?
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August 19th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
All kinds of people actually. Protests like this do not walk under a single banner, but in general they are fed up with the Democrats for some reason or another. I’m writing something about the Anti-globalization stuff for later.
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