Dance Dance Revolution!

A few days ago, I had the pleasure of standing on the side of the road drinking a Venti iced caramel macchiato (my personal favorite for sunny days) while watching two very interesting groups of people on opposite sides of the road. As security guards and police barricades lined the middle of the street to prevent both cars and streakers from dashing on by, I noticed that I wasn't the only one watching the spectacle. In fact, a variety of people had apparently decided to squander some of their time doing the exact same thing.

The 'event' was a demonstration held by two apparently opposing groups; one consisted of flags filled to the brim with Stars of David and the other, signs denouncing said Stars for various reasons. Chief among them was the prevention of 'Peace in the Middle East,' being bigoted, racism, and various other atrocities that one would only see in a Quentin Tarentino movie or in Halo 3. As the protestors shouted slogans back and forth, some of which were clever and others which were lame (and felt like they belonged in a brainwashing day camp for tots), I was struck by a few very interesting observations. Well, only one really interesting one and a bunch of not-so-important things.

They were singing and dancing. Yes. Singing. And. Dancing. While waving signs that contained enough propaganda to make any Communist state proud!

It is no secret that the Middle East is a hub of conflict, grudges, religious ideology and one or two other things, and it is also not a secret that peole have extremely strong opinions on what should be done, who should do it, and most importantly, who gets to plant that nice little flag. I won't even begin to try and explain either side given my complete lack of expertise on just about every aspect of what's actually going on, but I do know one thing; people are dying. Seems like a simple enough statement, but it isn't one that should be taken lightly. Over control for this land, people have gotten blown up, maimed, bled dried, murdered, killed, and any sort of horrible, horrible adjective you can think of. Without even knowing the entire situation, I can say at the very least that killing is probably something people should avoid in mostly all circumstances.

But the protestors who are championing relief to these acts were singing and dancing. While people in the world were getting slaughtered in the name of whatever or whoever, students safe in their cushioned little city were singing and dancing as a way to 'pave change.' To a humble observer like myself, this wasn't so much insulting as it was somewhat disheartening. Has the face of protest and activism become so diluted and lazy as to merely become a group of singing (and dancing!) students cheering for something which is completely beyond their control?

The idea of activism and demonstration brings up images of the Million Man March, of protestors violently fighting back against the authorities, and of a blatant honesty that these men and women somehow believed would save the world. Though I, as much of an impartial observer as I try to be, tend not to always agree with such viewpoints on many social issues, I can at least admire their gall and their spirit to fight for something they truly believe to be correct. It is foolhardy, to be sure, and somewhat stupid in the long wrong if it turns out that you're a) wrong or b) horribly misguided in reading social trends, but it does take guts and courage; qualities that are in low abundance in modern times along with second cousins chivalry and romance. The idea that someone would become a martyr, a symbol of personal struggle as metaphor for the whole, is both awe-inspiring and stupid at the same time.

However, the idea of someone singing and dancing as a symbol for that same ideal is simply stupid. If I were to base my viewpoints on student activism from this single incident alone, I would easily conclude that to these Starbucks-drinking Nietzche-quoting Limp Bizkit-listening students, a protest is more like a giant rave and the world will change not from blood, or tears, or sweat, but from a new music video of a song with bad, recycled lyrics.

Today is raining heavily, so I am lazy. With chinese food.

Cheers.