I think I'm going to avoid Live 8. I don't feel the need to be a part of this particular global event, and if my grandchildren ask me about it I'll say "Well, kiddiewinkies, I just didn't see the point. Now go and get me some space milk from the space corner shop."
I'm happy for charities to ask me for money. Well, not happy, but I get it. I give them money, they give it to people who need it for whatever reason. Whatever good reason I mean, not "they need a new bike" or something.
But this? Consciousness raising? What kind of useless hippy crap is this? Are the G8 leaders really going to write off Third World debt because Madonna does a free gig in Hyde Park? Will it really end the suffering of millions if the heads of state of the wealthiest nations see Bono (practically the 9th wealthiest nation in himself) prancing about lecturing people between lumpen slabs of Dadrock? Actually, that might even add to the suffering, bringing it to people in the First World, too. Which is egalitarian, I suppose.
My feeling is that mass protest of this sort makes no difference. Look at the regular, massive marches against the Iraq War. Boy, that sure stopped us going to war, didn't it? Oh, no, wait.
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Come to Edinburgh then, that's where the real protest is. There'll be hippies and bra burning and everything! Doesn't get any better than that.
...unfortunately.
Sorry, wasn't I saying that protesting sucks?
You said that free gigs with crusties suck. Concerts aren't really protests, they're just a cunning way of getting people who don't care to seem like they do.
but then, I'm going to be there anyway. Just in case it works. Protesting might be a lost art, but while the possibility of achieving something exists, why not at least try?
Did ya just... miss my last paragraph, then? Protesting is meaningless and pointless and it's so embarrassingly naive to think that it helps. Look at the Iraq war rallies. The Countryside Alliance protests. Did they work? No? Did they even help? No, except that they masked the genuine reasons we - the voting public - might have for going against the Labour government at the last election.
The gig itself is an ego-wank. The protest is.. just sad.
Of course marches against the war didn't work, it wasn't Tony Blair who decided it was going to happen, it was the Americans. Why would a protest in England change that? Did the CND marches work? Did Live Aid actually make all the poor people rich and happy? No. That's not the point and never has been. The real work is slow and steady and behind the scenes, protests are...advertising. Recruitment drives. Whatever. More often than not they're about a certain way of life (like the hunting and sixties folk) than an issue, too. They're not really quantifiable as wanting a specific change, they're just indicative, and as such they have their uses.
Oh, dear.
heh. I'm sorry. I try to be cynical, but it's the wrong kind of cynicism...or something.
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