With the Olympics going on in Vancouver there’s a fair number of people trolling around the city that otherwise wouldn’t be here; included in that number are the great unwashed: the protestors.
 | On a good day I don’t have a lot of time for protestors (but I’m all for passive protesting, or complaining as its often called, I do that all the time) because they all look like 2nd year university students (philosophy or history majors – sorry Chris H.) who are still living at home and read a story about how the polar bears in Darfur are being underpaid for making shoes and not allowed to practice their religion; so they make themselves a sign and go yell at people. |
It is a truth that protesting has its place. There’s a large percentage of the world (me included) that doesn’t know about all the issues and a smaller percentage of that larger percentage (me included) that doesn’t care about those issues. I have all sorts of respect for people who can look at the world around them and see things that need to be changed and then get off their asses to go try to make the world a better place. I wish I was wired that way.
Racial oppression. Gender oppression. Oppression of any sort. These are good and justified issues and if a protest is the only way to make the world sit up and take notice then yell until your hoarse.
But the Olympics? Is this a good reason to protest? Well some would say yes and because this is Canada and they have the right to free speech, I’m not allowed to tell them they’re wrong.
Olympic detractors often state, especially in host cities, that the money that goes into preparing for the Olympics could be better spent elsewhere and they’re not wrong. There’s plenty of better places that money could go – but the thing is: it wouldn’t. If that money wasn’t earmarked for the Olympics it would go into some stupid make work project such as gold laminating the door knobs of parliament (the physical door knobs of parliament not the mental ones that actually sit in parliament).
You know I’ve always been of the opinion that, for the same reason mentioned above, mankind should refrain from having a space program – the money could be used better elsewhere. (I’m also of the opinion that we should try and get Earth sorted out before we take our shit into space). But despite my strongly held believe that we shouldn’t screw up the rest of the galaxy you don’t see me standing at Cape Canaveral with my placard boldly stating: “BEFORE YOU GO TO MARS COVER URANUS.”
Protestors come in all sorts of makes and models, some are too legit to quit, while others go for the volume = relevance approach. This past weekend we had a number of protestors (masked no less) go on a mini-destructive spree. Windows at the Downtown Vancouver Hudson Bay store were smashed in as an example – now its still up in the air whether these were impishly, mischievous protestors or customers of The Bay who couldn’t find anyone to help them and were trying to draw attention to themselves.
This last sort is the worst sort of protestor; the people who go out to protest because its fun to yell and smash things; they detract from the point of the protestors who actually have a point (interestingly enough I was surprised to see feminists protesting in the mob; woman have the right to vote and screw up their lives like the rest of us men folk – why are there still feminists?). When the police department unmasked a few of these protestors they looked exactly as I described above: students far enough away from mid-terms that the need to study doesn’t keep them indoors.
Protestors, I think, need to start using the tools of the world they abhor to get their point out there. PETA, may they all rot in the third ring of Tartarus, at least uses advertising to try and get some of their points across – they may go too far, but at least they go there. With society being the way it is (cold, unfeeling and too busy doing its own thing to take notice of your piddly little issue) most people aren’t going to notice your point unless you present it like something they want.
I suggest a beer commercial.. and run it during the Olympics as we watch these amazing athletes from all over the world do some awesome stuff.
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