I've been to quite a few of these things and I generally end up feeling silly and embarrassed about being there. It feels pointless. Maybe that's because the police always win and have tried and tested tactics to close things down steadily. From what I saw on TV, this G20 did seem like a media staged event, especially when smashing the RBS windows. I think it was all too contained and controlled, and gives the impression that the public isn't anywhere near revolution point yet, and that the protestors largely can't express what they are protesting about (TV gave this impression). I don't think this is an effective way to protest anymore. It's like protests have become Glastonbury-ised.
There'll be other protests I'm sure, this wasn't one dave 2009/4/7 Olga <[email protected]>: > I met a friend last Tuesday that told me that Liverpool Street seemed > to be preparing for a hurricane, that the buildings had their windows > shot and protected with wooden panels. And yes, the media was also > preparing us for a hurricane, so much that the hurricane almost didn't > come. > > I went down to Bank on Wednesday and played the game of trying to > break the police barrier. It all felt so symbolic and useless. > > I am particularly interested in the manufacture of fear as a mode of > control. The UK authorities master the technique and they used it once > again this time. They spread the hype of a really dangerous wave of > protests, they deployed an army of policemen and in the finally, to > me, it all felt so little... > > I just read this post at K-punk > http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/archives/2009_04.html, and thought > it was weird that we haven't discussed anything here in > Netbehaviour... Not only the hurricane almost doesn't come, but it > leaves almost no traces.. In the post M. Fisher argues that is time to > move on, that these protests lead nowhere. I agree. However, even if > there is no response from the governments, there is something about > camping on the streets that I still find worth it. It's a day of > deviation, of using the street in a completely different way... and > even if it's just for the feeling that this gives you I think it is > still something. > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
