Mercnbeth
Posts: 11766
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quote:
Why arent the young kids standing up and protesting? why is protesting suddenly viewed as useless and ineffective? mixielicous, My theory is that there is no consensus on which to focus a protest. The draft was a great focal point. People were being forced to fight and die. People's children were being forced to fight and die. Policies concerning the draft were unbalanced and your race and/or economic situation put you at a greater risk of being forced to fight an die. That broad range of reasons brought a broad range of people who were either impacted by the situation or saw the injustice in it. Now you have a fighting force who not only volunteered but, contrary to the belief of some, have to meet a higher standard for entry than much of the public sector. Are you going to get much of a protest against all voluntary military? Much of the media protest is self generated, from both sides. The hippies of the day, evolved into yuppies, who now in their late 50's and 60's pine for their lost influence. The truth is they are loud, and in the case of the Hollywood connection visible, but represent a minority position radically apart from the majority. If they didn't, you'd see better results at the protests. Another factor is you have to have a large group of uncomfortable people to mount a protest similar to the 60's anti-war movement. Too many people are currently comfortable in the US. So far, the war hasn't effected them. Even those with family and friends dieing or maimed have to concede that they were there voluntarily. Then again, apathy is rampant. I think you'll get many comments providing lip service agreement but making it incumbent on someone else to tell them what to do. I'll tell you first hand that never was the case even in my college days that were relatively late in the game. We managed to find each other by way or fliers and word of month. I'd bet if the internet were around back in the day some of those protests would have literally shut down the country. There are just too many people whose idea of political involvement begins and ends with posts to a CM political thread.
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