Splicetoday

Politics & Media
Jun 20, 2008, 07:40AM

Grab Your Signs

A Minnesota columnist studying abroad in London comments on the apathy of today's youth culture and the lack of civil disobedience and protest in the modern era. 

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Photo by skenmy

There's nothing quite like singing "Wonderwall" in a packed subway car.

Effective June 1, the city of London banned all alcohol on public transportation. We might be surprised that boozing in the Underground was legal in the first place, but the step was moderately controversial. More importantly, it meant: Tube Party. Nobody is quite sure how many people turned out to give liquored transport a proper sendoff (most newspaper reports simply refer to the "thousands of revelers"), but we do know that 17 people were arrested and six stations were shut down. A shame, too - everyone should have the chance to sing Oasis in a subway next to a dude in a Chewbacca suit.

On Sunday, about two weeks later, President George W. Bush arrived in London as part of his European "Good Riddance" tour. Early news reports have the number of protesters pegged at around 2,000 and the number of arrests at a mere 13. Last time Bush was in town (in 2003), the protesters numbered in the tens of thousands.

That's quite an embarrassing contrast. A few thousand people, in a city of more than seven million, mean nothing. We have a generational problem on our hands: protests are the domain of the young, but the young haven't shown much interest in taking to the streets.

 

Discussion
  • No matter how strongly I believe in an issue, I will NEVER go to a protest. It's always an embarrassment when you get there and see the guy in facepaint and a court jester's hat riding a recumbent bike around. I can see the Oval Office now: "Mr. President, there are a lot of protesters outside." "Who cares? What are they gonna' do?" "Well, sir, one of them is dressed as a court jester." "Jesus, why didn't you tell me that sooner! Pull our troops out of Iraq immediately!"

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  • The lack of military conscription is the main reason why anti-war protests today pale in comparison to those of the 60s. On the other hand, the enormous Obama rallies prove that young adults are not apathetic.

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  • Yeah, I completely agree. When people protested in the 60s, you had grandmas in nice hats and young people wearing suits. If something's worth protesting, it should be worth dressing up nice for.

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  • Also, Christian, I don't think the civil rights protests depended upon the draft for their power. Most of the significant ones happened before Vietnam was really a political issue.

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  • Yes, DD, I agree that the civil rights marches were more inspired by a moral imperative (not to mention seeing and hearing Martin Luther King and famous folk singers). But the author of the piece was talking about anti-war rallies, and that's where the draft comes. I don't think it's a coincidence that the tailing off of huge protests in D.C. occurred when Nixon made military service optional. Also, the Kent State killings put a serious damper on large rallies.

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