In my increasingly opinionated public blog which ebbs further away from its target audience, today I am talking about protests, more specifically, stop protesting!
(Tomorrow we’ll be back on track with uni related stuff. Just let me vent!)
I have to be honest, has the last, say, decade of protesting changed anything? I’m not so sure. Protests abroad, e.g. Libya and Egypt, have delivered revolutions but only at the cost of near full-on civil war. In the UK, any display of violence is clamped down on, kettled up or could turn into a one night riot.
I do believe change is necessary for development, but I don’t think we know any better than our MPs or the Prime Minister. We know what we want for sure – more jobs, better housing, cheaper universities – and we voted in the people we think will give us those (oh yes, WE voted them in). Thing is, are any of these protesters suggesting realistic methods that will achieve tangible results and influence change? I was having a conversation once with a socialist ex-housemate about social enterprise and using business to drive positive global change. His response to this was: ah what’s this business shit man, we need to do community stuff man, like in communities. Now what on earth that meant, I never knew.
The world doesn’t revolve around free. Three thousand years ago we traded in salt and silk, today we trade in fire-proof notes and brass discs. Free universities aren’t just going to fall out of the sky, someone has to pay for them, and why shouldn’t it be the attendees? That said, students don’t even pay for university upfront, they take a student loan with a favourable interest rate and no effect at all on credit rating, and pay it back as and when they can. To attend Oxbridge you pay £27,000 for three years at current rates. To attend Harvard, the USA’s equivalent, you’re looking at $200,000 in fees. Some countries don’t even offer student loans, meaning students have to pay up front or attend courses part time, significantly increasing the average time taken to achieve a degree.
I just want to tell you that I think we’re lucky to be able to get a fully funded education up until we’re 21, perhaps even older. Okay, so today’s strikes are about public sector and pensions, but needless to say other recent strikes have revolved around universities.
People, just go back to work. Inject six more hours of productivity into the economy. If you don’t like public sector pensions, then offer up a measured solution. Stop protesting. What does it change?
Comments on: "Stop protesting" (4)
Hmmm.. Nice Blogs btw I enjoy reading these kind of things, especially post Uni related.
I am however inclined to disagree with a few of your comments and this is not meant to cause offence – just spark conversation (as I am sure this is why you were posting/blogging in the first place?)
I am usually the first to jump on the conservative (anti-hippy) bandwagon, however, I just can’t agree with the ‘Stop protesting. What does it change?’ – I think that today’s protests do get stifled by the leftist poking his/her nose in where it doesn’t belong (Dale farm fiasco is a case and point) however a legitimate strike or protest in response to a political decision sparks debates in both the media and the home which might have otherwise been missed or miss represented and this CAN make a difference:
- Who/why you vote for in future
- Testing how the political party can adapt and react based on public opinion
- Encourage public debate and shifting opinion
We protest every day in one form or another as you are protesting here (in your own way). maybe your not expecting to change anything, only ‘vent’? – or maybe you are sparking a debate that may change hundreds of opinions for the good?
From my point of view – I want to see protests… I just don’t want to see protests for protests sake! (people getting involved because they have nothing else to do – or have a love of waving a flag while blind drunk).
Just food for thought!
Thank you for your comment!
Yes, I do encourage lively debate but I also write for the sake of writing, so you’re right on both counts.
As a general reply I would like to mention that it’s not protesting that gets me to me, it is the lack of productivity and time-wasting. I wrote this here because it forms part of my website and my opinion and expresses something relatively close to graduate life, but also I wouldn’t have written it just to waste time.
Again, I just don’t see street protests as productive ways to boost the economy or generate jobs or pay rent.
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