Protests are supposed to be disruptive

Chanting protestors woke me early this morning (well, perhaps not that early). As I was planning to sleep in, my first thought was “go away – I am trying to sleep.” After a moment’s reflection, I laughed at myself. After all, democratic constitutions view protest as a legitimate form of political speech because they are meant to disrupt. Objecting to protests because they impose difficulties on non-protestors is inherently undemocratic.

Fascists also care a lot about health and safety

Watching the police break up protests throughout the US due to concerns about health and safety is making my blood boil. The First Amendment doesn’t contain provisions that limit freedom of speech on the basis these concerns (except when people use freedom of speech to deliberately call for harming others or to put others in harm’s way). It reminds me of the South African Government under Apartheid. They often cited concerns for health and safety when they wanted to bulldoze the neighborhoods of Africans who didn’t sufficiently appreciate the benefits of the Apartheid system.

Thoughts on the Occupation

I like to think of myself as a social democrat and capitalist. In practical terms, this means that while I like to watch CNBC and read the Wall Street Journal, I also recognize that people power needs to balance the influence of corporate interests for social democracy and capitalism to coexist. Thus, I am all in favor of the Occupy Wall Street movement. While I suspect that Goldman Sachs is far from surrendering, it’s a good thing for the captains of finance who brought us the financial crisis of 2008-? to see some menacing looking folks who look like they wouldn’t mind hanging the Lords of Finance from their ties off the Brooklyn Bridge.

You and Me, Let’s Start a Revolution

In a bit of solidarity with the Egyptians, but mostly because this so cool, check out ‘historyteachers’ YouTube videos, including ‘The French Revolution‘ to Lady Gaga’s ‘Bad Romance’.  If ever there was an appropriate choice of songs for that subject, I would say this is it.

On Recent Protests

So now and again in my Eeyore-like philosophy of always expecting the worst, I find myself truly and pleasantly surprised.  From the start, the recent protests, uprisings and overthrow of the Tunisian government struck me as a powerful moment in history and a reminder of a more aggressive approach to government accountability.  Yet as exciting as they were, the activities in Tunisia certainly didn’t strike me as any sort of catalyst for change in the region.  The developments this week in Egypt and most recently Yemen thus left me rather speechless.

Unlike some, I certainly am not expecting a sudden surge of representative governance or for democratic rule to spring forth in the wake of these uprisings, particularly in Egypt or Yemen. On the other hand, pessimist or not, it’s hard not to be inspired by the recent activities.  Like many interested in international relations, I found myself wondering just what this means for the United States and other Western democracy building interests.  Unlike many, the best thing I can think to hope for is that Western policy-makers will take care with the situation and if possible stay out of it.

A popular rising of displeasure with authoritarian government certainly doesn’t equate a sudden desire for Western intervention.  If anything we might hope for the recent uprisings to provide a model of understanding future change in the region.