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2005-04-23 Home Front: Culture Wars
BBC Asks....Where Did All the Protesters Go?
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Posted by Desert Blondie 2005-04-23 1:23:25 AM|| || Front Page|| [11140 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 Just about the only poetry I like are things like"El Cid" and"Charge of the Light Brigade"(the rest is just too damn whiny).Does that make me a barbarian?
Posted by raptor 2005-04-23 7:54:39 AM||   2005-04-23 7:54:39 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 But what has happened - where did all the protests go?

The Mayor loves good lyrics. Perhaps Big Mary Travers could lend a hand with the melody.
Posted by The Mayor 2005-04-23 10:42:03 AM||   2005-04-23 10:42:03 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 The Mayor should point out right now that he's a visiting Mayor not The RB Mayor, I'm here to share and lern from the Master.
Posted by The Visiting Mayor 2005-04-23 10:43:47 AM||   2005-04-23 10:43:47 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 Probably, raptor.

Or maybe you're just smart. ;-p

[Though it sounds like you haven't read much Frost, Sandburg, or Robinson. No whine there.]
Posted by Barbara Skolaut  2005-04-23 10:46:17 AM||   2005-04-23 10:46:17 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 Milton, Tennyson, and Masefield are all great, too - though Tennyson tops them all. Although I think "Light Brigade" might be above these absent idiots . . . it contains themes of war and bravery in the face of death . . .
Posted by The Doctor 2005-04-23 11:35:59 AM||   2005-04-23 11:35:59 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 In the interviews on teevee, the protesters solemnly swore The Movement was growing, real soon now. My personal opinion is that they spent a LOT of dough and energy last year trying to defeat Bush, and that this is basically a time of hudna.
Posted by Seafarious  2005-04-23 11:41:13 AM||   2005-04-23 11:41:13 AM|| Front Page Top

#7 Sea, does that mean they're going to start seething? I likes to watch seething. ;)
Posted by Desert Blondie 2005-04-23 11:45:22 AM|| [http://azjetsetchick.blogspot.com/]  2005-04-23 11:45:22 AM|| Front Page Top

#8 My thinking is more practical. After getting the Italian treatment, very few of these professional protesters are willing to travel to get the shit beat out of them or run the risk of getting shot.
Posted by Sock Puppet 0’ Doom 2005-04-23 11:59:37 AM||   2005-04-23 11:59:37 AM|| Front Page Top

#9 a far cry from a few years ago when it seemed no summit of world financial institutions was complete without thousands of protestors on the streets

Here's what happened: the majority of protestors graduated, got jobs and moved on. And the cause is too "been there, done that" for the next generation to adopt. Plus, the gloom and doom predicted 10 years ago has, surprise surprise, not come to pass. So the "few hundred people" left are just the hangers-on.
Posted by PlanetDan  2005-04-23 12:09:52 PM||   2005-04-23 12:09:52 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 Q: Do you think your movement's appeal is declining?

A: No. No. No... It has just become more selective.

From This is Spinal Tap the Anarchist Movement
Posted by Jackal  2005-04-23 12:10:54 PM|| [http://home.earthlink.net/~sleepyjackal/index.html]  2005-04-23 12:10:54 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 ...the rest is just too damn whiny...

I commend Kipling (my favorite poet) to your attention, and Robert W. Service. The latter's "The Law of the Yukon" is the antithesis of whiny.
Posted by Angie Schultz 2005-04-23 1:18:22 PM|| [http://darkblogules.blogspot.com]  2005-04-23 1:18:22 PM|| Front Page Top

#12 Thanks, Angie. I was wondering why those two spectacularly fine poets hadn't come up yet. Kipling is my all-time favorite poet, closely followed by Service.
Posted by mac 2005-04-23 1:32:21 PM||   2005-04-23 1:32:21 PM|| Front Page Top

#13 Jackal - that was my smartass comment!
Posted by Raj 2005-04-23 1:54:57 PM||   2005-04-23 1:54:57 PM|| Front Page Top

#14 Maybe they all just grew up? Or discovered the blogosphere and had their leftie illusions shattered...
Posted by anon1 2005-04-23 2:59:39 PM||   2005-04-23 2:59:39 PM|| Front Page Top

#15  Seafarious raises a good point. Organizing large protests costs money. Soros and his ilk poured alot of money into the 2004 campaign,there's been a crackdown on charities(Islamic ones esp.),and the Tsunami sucked up a huge amount of charity money that might have otherwise gone to lefty umbrella groups that organize protests. There is also the fact Saddam is no longer in power-we know he was bribing governments and reporters,how much anyone want to bet aginst him funding the anti-war,anti-US,anti-capitalist ptotests?
Posted by Stephen 2005-04-23 3:47:07 PM||   2005-04-23 3:47:07 PM|| Front Page Top

#16 Stephen - IIRC Saddam was funding anti-US/anti-war groups, including the nimrods that went as human shields. You are right...
Posted by Frank G  2005-04-23 4:00:35 PM||   2005-04-23 4:00:35 PM|| Front Page Top

#17 I'm really gonna miss the pink tanks. *sniff*

If Sea is right, we should dedicate satellite time to search for where they will be rebuilding and rearming. I'm thinking NSA experts will prolly recognize a farm field full of pink tanks fairly quickly... Of course, they may employ some of the doper tactics, since so many of these addled tools are stoners, and put up netting to shield their army from observation. Shhhh, nobody tell them that the netting shouldn't be a gazillion pair of used pantyhose... both visual and olfactory sensors will pick it up, methinks.
Posted by .com 2005-04-23 4:02:26 PM||   2005-04-23 4:02:26 PM|| Front Page Top

#18 Of course, approaching this mystery from another perspective, perhaps they all just went home and crashed on their parent's sofa.
Posted by .com 2005-04-23 4:04:16 PM||   2005-04-23 4:04:16 PM|| Front Page Top

#19 Guess I will have to check-out your recomendations,most of the poetry I've read was about how terrable the writers love life,etc is.
Posted by raptor 2005-04-23 4:08:27 PM||   2005-04-23 4:08:27 PM|| Front Page Top

#20 T.S. Eliot as well.... for weirdness, if nothing else
Posted by Frank G  2005-04-23 4:16:19 PM||   2005-04-23 4:16:19 PM|| Front Page Top

#21 After they got the shit beat out of them in England and Italy I'd say most of them figure it just ain't worth it. Sod of, Swampy. Best line of the year.
Posted by Deacon Blues  2005-04-23 9:09:26 PM||   2005-04-23 9:09:26 PM|| Front Page Top

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