You have to hand it to them...

Those crazy protesters. Look at 'em go!

The last G20 summit held in Pittsburgh held small echoes of the 1999 WTO fiasco which no government would ever allow to happen again. Video on YouTube and Google show people on megaphones shouting out lofty statements about free speech and the American first amendment of the Constitution, and then here come the riot police. They have their fancy trucks with sound cannons on them, they tote around their batons and zap straps, and they're ready to arrest anyone who gets out of line. But there's those protesters shouting their slogans and rhetoric, still trying to make the world a better place.

Little did they know that the land of the free got sold.

Everyone in the United States is raised to be a clean patriotic citizen, whose moral ethic is built to lead the world by their example. As a child you don't think that anyone is lying to you. You then grow up and realize that most things are lies, huge lies. The American Constitution is one of them. Protesters grow up and decide that they are the ones to affect change, and still believe that they have rights. Yet everytime you watch one of these major protests go down, it doesn't matter how peaceful they are, the cops show up and start throwing their weight around, sometimes without provocation. Is that the idea of freedom they were raised upon? I think not. As well they also must believe that their opinions matter, but as we all know there's plenty of complaining in the world, and no one cares. Now that sounds pretty jaded, but what have the protestors accomplished?

Now don't get me wrong. I admire the ideals these people extol, and wish I had the ability to do what they do. They want to be heard so they go out and give it their all to get heard. They risk being caught in a riot, gassed, pepper sprayed, and arrested to get their message out. The problem is that to make the changes they want they have to convince the people in power. They have to get their message to those who control the nations and corporations, and make them listen. How can you do that if there's a line of police between you and the person you want to talk to? What would it matter anyway? The person you want to talk to wants the police between you and them anyways, so already there's a barrier in place before you even see a cop. These people don't want to, or have time to talk to protesters and activists, because they believe all they're going to hear is how they are a) a horrible person, b) their activities are killing everyone, and c) they are part of a global problem which they perpetuate. What they aren't hearing is a) how they can change, b) how to ease the impacts on humanity, and c) how we can all work together to be prosperous.

Have you ever seen a protest march where the people want to talk to the companies, and heads of state in a positive way? In the modern day it seems that corporations, especially in the States, are holding governments hostage in a sense. Money being what it is drives this corporate bus straight to the capitals of nations and attempts to force the door open so to speak. But they do it so subtley that you're not sure what's happening, you just get this uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach. Breathing heavily into the paper bag, and reaching for the Rolaids, you tell yourself that's it's going to be ok. But it doesn't get better. You keep paying you taxes, and driving your car to work. You watch the mind control box at night when you get home while cramming down a heart stopping meal. Life revolves around comfort, and anytime something unpleasant comes on the tube, you can just change the channel. We ignore the things we don't want to see. We don't want to work towards the positive, because that would be too hard.

Protestors and activists have this golden vision of how the world should be, but the methods they use are working against them. Protesting en masse is good, rioting is not so good. Working to change goverment and corporate opinion is good, confirming these bodies opinions about the working class is not so good. Activism has to change the way it works globally before it can conquer global problems. Corporations and governments must also take a long view of the world beyond their high rise buildings and warehouses, and see the future they are creating can be deadly dangerous if it's built on a foundation of greed and shady dealings. Maybe then both sides will be able to sit at the same table and hash out their differences.

After all how can you have dialogue while shouting at one another?