20 Things That Make More Sense Than Protesting

I leave Pittsburgh and the G-20 moves in.  That’s the way it feels this week, as the news wire is increasingly clogged with stories about police and protester activity leading up to this weekend’s actual summit.  And while I’d love to be home watching the out-of-town protesters clash with the out-of-town cops, destroying property that the locals will have to pay for afterward through increased taxes or budget cuts, I can’t.

So, in response, permit me (police state pun intended) to offer an open letter to the protesters, whose foaming-mouthed ire against capitalism, globalism, racism and most other -isms (except, presumably, socialism) is likely to create a lot of white noise and property damage this week, but not much actual progress:

Dear protesters (and those who feel like shouting while at home),

Protesting is, with rare exception, a waste of your time and effort.  The appalling political and socioeconomic atrocities you seek to call attention to (if not overthrow completely) will continue long after your minor show of solidarity accrues its obligatory minimalist press coverage.  What you’re upset about today will still be something to be upset about tomorrow, but the difference is, what you’re upset about has the benefit of international resources, global awareness and mainstream media control.

You have a hoodie.

Instead of descending upon Pittsburgh — a city that’s only now emerging from a decades-long coma of post-industrial demoralization, and which finally has a non-Steelers-related excuse for visitors from beyond the tri-state area to book hotel rooms downtown — and doing your anarchic best to topple the world’s most oppressive regimes by smashing the windows of small businesses, vandalizing police equipment and engaging in other counterculture activities that people with day jobs will eventually be taxed into repairing, consider this:

There are dozens of actions you can take, right now, today, that will have a broader and more tangible impact upon the world, the future and your own personal sense of self than waving homemade banners at the CMU Robotics Department will ever accomplish.  Here are 20 suggestions.

• Audit the powerbrokers. Worried about a police state?  Take action.  Instead of trying to bash in the nearest cop’s skull, join your local Citizens Police Review Board.  (Your city doesn’t have one?  Form one.)
• Get a job. You’re trying to combat global economic oppression by couchsurfing?  Quaint as that may be, if you can’t provide a stable income for yourself, you won’t survive long enough to elicit any real change.  Evolution takes time and money.  I know working sucks, but sponging off the kindness of others who do work for a living sucks worse; stop being a social parasite and other people may take you seriously.
• Lobby for health insurance. Nothing brings a totalitarian state to its knees like redirecting defense spending toward health care for the poor.  (Plus, if you get your skull bashed in at the next G-20, you won’t have to wonder if the local ER accepts your COBRA plan.)
• Run for office. I know, I know.  Heresy.  But here’s the catch: the existing two-party system has no reason to change because no one outside of it ever mounts a serious challenge.  A Libertarian, Green or Independent candidate is never going to get elected President or Senator out of the blue, so why not apply your ideals to local elections?  Long-term political success is what gets noticed, and long-term politicians are the ones who make the very rules you’re so vomitously opposed to — so get on that.
• Read. And not just blogs; actual books.  (Even newspapers.)  Read varying points of view.  Seek out the contradictions among various sources.  Everyone has an agenda — even you! — which means everyone’s obscuring something and overemphasizing something else.  Form your own opinions, then re-evaluate them on a regular basis to make sure they’re still valid.  Life changes; so do beliefs.
• Teach. If you know something, share it.  A lot of people out there don’t know anything at all.  How can you expect your ideas to gain critical mass if people don’t understand why your ideas matter in the first place?
• Make art. Images say what words can’t.  Art transcends cultural barriers.  It affects us for the long haul.  And it doesn’t exist unless you create it, which is the antithesis of something (like a piece of public property) existing until you destroy it.
• Buy local. The money you spend locally remains primarily in the local community.  Build up local wealth, trust and community, and then see what kind of regional change you can accomplish.
• Vote local. What happens on the national level trickles down to your doorstep; what happens in your city council and your school board takes effect tomorrow.  Become aware of where you live, and make sure that works properly before you try to fix the entire nation.
• Form a non-profit.  A few years ago, some pissed-off lefties started MoveOn.org.  Worked out pretty well for them.
• Volunteer. Food shelters need servers.  The elderly need assistance.  Stray dogs need walks, politicians need envelopes licked and prisoners need somebody to talk to.  There’s no shortage of individual lives you can touch by helping.
• Mentor. Children need guidance, so they don’t grow up to become desperate consumers and mass-media captives like their parents.  They also need to know how to tie their shoes, cross streets safely and play well with others.  No matter your politics, surely you can manage to impart the lesson of bunny ears.
• Petition. When you rave in the street like a maniac, the average citizen tunes you out.  When you knock on their doors and explain your political concerns to them on their own porches, and then ask them for their signature… most of them still tune you out.  But 100 signatures borne from 100 conversations is more powerful (and meaningful) than 100 smashed windows at American Apparel.
• Farm. Pissed off about Cargill, Monsanto and the other world food nazis?  Grow your own.  Feed your neighbors.  You’d be surprised how revolutionary a tomato can be when eaten, rather than thrown.
• Rebuild. Look around your own neighborhood.  Find the burned-out playgrounds, the vacant lots, the boarded-up homes and the broken spirits of your fellow citizens.  Befriend your local councilman, grab a shovel, and make something out of nothing.
• Donate. Everyone needs something.  Old clothes, used books, soup cans, blood.  Get creative.
• Learn. Spurious as it may seem, not everyone in the older generations is a corporate demagogue.  The wisdom, experience and knowledge possessed by our parents, grandparents and other once-young citizens is on a timer, and their clocks are running down.  Once they’re gone, so go all the things they know that we do not…
• Bike. Cheaper than a car, faster than walking, better for the environment and a built-in workout, all in one.  And at such affordable prices, it’s unlikely that bike manufacturers will ever get “too big too fail.”
• Unplug. The world is a maelstrom of sound bites and disinformation.  Watching CNN or reading Daily Kos for five minutes is enough to drive anyone to drink.  Do yourself a favor: cut back on your information intake.  Focus less on the sheer volume of misery and injustice in the world and more on the steps you can take to improve things in your own backyard.  You’ll get a lot more done and spend a lot less time fanning the half-informed flames of frustration.
• Fuck.  Because no one feels like firebombing a Starbucks after their third orgasm.  (Besides, if you don’t procreate, the Duggars will win by default — and then we’re really screwed.)

I’m as opposed to the strangulation of independent thought by the corporate state as you are.  All I’m suggesting is that you actually do something that stands a chance at improving the world, rather than venting your frustrations in a destructive and easily misinterpreted show of momentary force.  The people of the world need education and inspiration; they don’t need a drinking tax or a reduction in arts funding to pay for your week of public fist-shaking.

Yours in spirit if not in method,

Justin Kownacki

Tags: America, bullshit, common sense, perception, Pittsburgh, politics, Sociology