Okay, intelligent reader…let’s get back to it.  There are one or two more thing I should mention before we get started.  The first thing, which applies to pretty much anything political or cultural I discuss, at least in this context: when I talk about these topics, I generally don’t address them from the perspective of “this is what I think is right and the other side is wrong.”  Though some of the cultural issues I have very strong and clear opinions about, but that is rarely what I’ll be talking about.  Unless stated otherwise, I’ll be addressing methods, as opposed to the “cause” itself.  As for many of the cause themselves (particularly the political ones), the truth is I really don’t care. The transient politics of humans are silly and inconsequential (from a certain perspective).  There are some issues whose causes I publicly support and am completely behind, but I will be brutally critical of the methods chosen to attempt to advance the agenda, simply because the method doesn’t work and is thus a waste of time and resources.

For example, if I say something like. “In present day America, all marches protests, pickets, unofficial petitions, colored lapel ribbons, themed frames or filters on social media profile pictures, and hashtag campaigns regardless of cause, are completely masturbatory, pointless, and utterly ineffectual,” it should be obvious that I mean that about any march, for any cause, including my own.

I’m sensing you would like a bit of justification for this potentially provocative statement (though it really shouldn’t be).  So here’s why marches are a waste of time and effort: Marches and mass political protests are useful in certain environments and situations: if you live in a society where you are not allowed to vote, or there are no elections, then it is time to take to the streets.  If you are officially forbidden from from gathering, from free speech, from pursuing an education, running for government office, bringing a lawsuit, or filing for divorce, then it’s time to organize and “march.”  If your government is internationally recognized as an abysmally corrupt failed narco-state, then yes, collective political action in the street is called for.  But in those situations, I would not call for a march.  The people who are maintaining a constitution which specifies fewer (or no) rights for any race- or gender-based group (in our present world, 2019), a non-violent march is not going to suddenly cause whomever is in power to change their mind(s).  You’re going to have to get much more “hands on” to affect any real change, and staging any kind of “march” to draw awareness to your cause or air your grievances only gives the government in question an opportunity to assemble lists of names and get to know the people involved.

But we’re not talking about that.  We’re talking about the United States in the 21st century.  And though marches had their place and were effective in the past, that mode of political expression and change is outdated and inappropriate for current times.  The reason is that there is simply not much, societally, that is keeping anyone from going out and implementing actual change, whatever that change may be.  For example, police protests have been en vogue for a while now, and those seem to have really ramped up in the last 10 years or so, sometimes turning into community-destroying riots.  Totally pointless.  Somehow, this “us vs them”” mentality has developed, where citizens view the police as somehow “other” (not unlike that nonsense we were talking about a couple weeks ago about thinking that humans are somehow outside of or “other” than nature).  Once that false dichotomy is created, trouble is soon to follow.  It’s not “Them vs. Us,”  It’s just “Us.”  You and me.  So if you have a problem with how your city is being policed and you absolutely cannot tolerate it any longer and you want to see real change, you can put in application with the PD, and if you can make through the academy, you can determine how at least part of your city is policed because it’s you doing the policing.  If you disagree with the way policy or legislation is being written or implemented, then you can run for office and do things the way you want them done.  Rather than congregating with like-minded lemmings and bitching meaninglessly about how sad you are about something, or how upset you are about the job that someone else who actually showed up to do the heavy lifting of policing or governing is doing, why don’t you become a police officer or run for office?  It’s a rhetorical question, but we all know the answer: Because as outraged as you may pretend to be, you’re not upset enough to actually do anything about it yourself.  And that makes you feel guilty, because you’re feeling outraged, but you don’t want to actually do anything about it, but you can’t just not do anything, you have to do something, anything, whether it has any actual impact on anything or not, because at least then you can say you did something so hashtag campaign or march after work or write a little check.  And deep down you know that whatever you did was a futile, symbolic, and empty gesture, but it made that pesky guilt go away and that’s all you can reasonably asked to do.

I have a lot of friends and people that I love who have participated in marches and I’m sure will do so again.  I get why people do it…it’s pretty much the same as believing in God: it is very difficult to accept that there are shitty things in life that you are completely powerless to do anything about.  So you believe in a God and you say prayers and thus you are able to convince your subconscious that you actually are able to do things to deal with your problems.  And that’s fine.  But you can’t expect other people to go along with your delusional coping mechanisms.  If they work for you, great, but don’t expect me to say that there is a Santa or a Jesus or a hashtag campaign with any real world results.

Here’s the deal: stay informed on all of the issues and candidates and vote.  If you don’t like the outcome of the election, stay informed on all the issues and candidates and vote in the next election.  If you don’t like the outcome of that election, maybe it’s time to run for office yourself.

N.P.: “Ordinary” – Train