Can The Anti-War Movement Be Saved?

A good question! Answer is not at the rate it is running now. Why? No pizzazz! Basically, what you have now are just people who want to end the war, gathering, marching and chanting. YAWN!

Step back into the 60’s and 70’s. The anti-war movement was a production there were people in Nixon masks, dressed like POWs, dressed like monks who set themselves on fire; in other words there was a theater of the absurd, a guerilla theater, within the anti-war movement. Small plays were presented during the protests that had a theme. Such subjects as number of dead soldiers, number of dead Vietnamese, capitalistic M-IC, anything that pertained to the war and its make up.

I see very little of this in today’s anti-war demonstrations. I see marchers, carrying of signs, a bit of chanting, and more boring stuff. Nothing grabs the spectators or for that matter the media. Without the media the protests will only reach a very, very small audience. If that is the case, all the protesting in the world will be as useless as a fart in the wind. To be successful in the anti-war movement, you need to attract attention. Lots of attention! Today, they are attracting a 10 second sound byte on the evening news, if that much.

Apparently few of the masters are left. If they still are around, then they are in a comfortable place and do not feel that opposition to the war is a worthy pursuance. Especially from a generation that wrote the book on civil disobedience.

Confrontation, there is the key! Going limp when arrested is not what I am talking about. I am talking about forcing the forces to over-react. That tactic is not as popular as it was back in the day. Few are willing to take one for the movement. It is just not that important anymore.

ALL protests should have those people that are trained in the arts, especially the performing arts; these people can help the message get noticed by the spectators and especially the media.

So can the anti-war movement be saved? Yes it can, but the people have got to want it to be saved. Now, war is not on the front pages as much and the attention of the people is elsewhere. The movement will lose its newsworthiness and could kill it completely.