Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Worst. Protest. Ever. And the funniest thing I've seen/heard all week...

This is...wow, this is fabulous. I'm dyin' over here. [UPDATE: Whoops. Forgot to credit Rob at Say Anything for this one.]

The scene: NYU. A student group is protesting...something. Demanding budget disclosure, something about the food plan, scholarships for Palestinians, really a grab-bag of "progressive" talking points.

So this group of dozens barricaded themselves in the cafeteria building for three days.

On the third day, the school had had enough. The video is posted here. (Warning: some language--big shock, right?)

Oh. Man.

If you made it a drinking game, taking a shot at all of the PC-buzzwords and "conflict resolution" language, you'd make it maybe five minutes.

I have to give credit to the university representative. If this punk kid had looked me in the eye, and told me that they were going to decide if they accepted my demand to show ID, I would have lost it. You don't have a chip to bargain with, Skippy.

And I about died when, as their time to "deliberate" and find "consensus" is dwindling, the person filming actually says, "okay, who can act as facilitator here?" SERIOUSLY? You're about to be led away by the campus police, and you're wanting to facilitate a consensus discussion to make sense of it all.

What's so amazing about this video is the illusion of rights or bargaining power. Nevermind the fact that, as a student, you are paying for the privelege of attendance. Nothing is owed, nothing is promised. And if you violate the rules--if you RIOT and BARRICADE a public university building--you get the consequences. It's like, the children of the Vietnam protesters learned all of the buzzwords but none of the responsibility. People then realized that sit-ins and protests meant facing jailtime, facing repercussions. The idea was that through ACCEPTING the punishment, they would achieve change by the INJUSTICE done to them. That's how MLK did it, and it worked. Was MLK surprised or offended when he was taken to a Birmingham jail? No. He accepted it and transcended it. That's how victory through protest is achieved.

Now, it's like protesters are SHOCKED when their actions and choices result in punishment or intervention. They're angry? Really?!?

I wish i could sit down with this guy and his compatriots, in a civil manner, and say, "What do you think you deserve? What do you think you are owed?" After he rattles off a list of "rights," I would then take a breath, to keep from laughing, and continue.

"Why? What have you done to deserve that?"

And I'd be willing to bet my paycheck (know what that is, kids? that thing you go work to earn?), when i ask him that question, I'd be met with a total deer-in-headlights stare.

Oh, and what I'm now reading? The guy who took the video--not even a student at NYU.

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Here's another account of the protest and sit-in. I like the title.

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On the other hand, this disturbs me. Why hasn't the media been reporting this?

Oh, right. Oscars.

1 comment:

Dave said...

Here's a nice follow-up: http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/23/of-secret-meetings-and-meager-eating-my-final-thoughts-on-the-kimmel-occupation/#more-8940