I know what you mean, but that was also a different time. Now that the media largely controls the public perspective, it's hard to have your voice truly be heard. Plus, if said protest doesn't go in line with their agenda, they can easily smear it. The media has vastly changed since then as well.
Yes, they were a different time.
But they were also more focused. Protests do not work for general problems/complaints. And they certainly do not work when you are talking about a large group literally occupying a major city. The only pocketbooks the current protests are hurting are taxpayers, since they are causing cities to have to spend more money on cleanup and law enforcement, even if you don't count the LEO actions directly against protesters, as a whole.
That's true, but those are also at a smaller level. I don't see OWS getting wall street or the government to change their practices.
Which is basically what I am saying. Protests do not work on a large scale like this, so it is pointless to try. It would be much better to band together, get some actual leadership, find out what people want, and work at developing reasonable solutions to push for to the problems.
Small scale protests do work though. There are many examples of small scale protests being effective, as long as they are something that many people can agree with.
As for me, I would probably join a small-scale protest about the greed of Wall St. and its connections to our government. As long as there was an actual message and a reasonable goal to doing it. I am not wasting my time with general complaints protests. And I do not condone any violence or even yelling/threats against police officers. Protesters should fight their battles in court, not with the police. And they need to understand that their actions are affecting more than just those who they are protesting when such things go on for so long, on such a huge scale.
The Dixie Chicks thing was just silly to me. Seeing clips of people destroying their cds as if that somehow hurts the Dixie Chicks. Those people paid for those cds and are essentially flushing their money down the toilet. The Dixie Chicks are still around too. Granted, they aren't as successful as they used to be, but they are still out there and doing fairly well from what I've seen.
I agree with the whole destroying CDs you have already paid for, that is pretty stupid. I even said so when it was being done. (I was on the carrier in the Gulf when the comment was made and most of those protests were being done.)
They were hurt big by the following boycott of their music though. Prior to the "incident", they were top of the charts in country music, including earning big country awards for the album they had just released, Home. They lost at least half of their original fans, if not more, here in the US. (I can't be counted, since, although I liked some Dixie Chick songs, I honestly didn't care for them overall. I am a Reba fan.) They are not doing great. They have released only one album since the comment, which was more of a political statement, than anything else. Then, they took a break and now, there are only 2 in the group and they changed their name. I don't see them coming back.
and we were PROS.
