The Economics Of Protest
A friend of mine was recently arrested at an anti-war / pro-peace event she helped organize. This event consisted of blocking one of the largest intersections in downtown Austin with oil cans while hanging a large banner above the street that read, "How Many Lives Per Gallon?" She did this at 7am, and I imagine she was arrested around 7:15 or 7:30, if not earlier.
While I agree with her sentiments, and I'm extremely proud of her for standing up for what she believes in, I do not agree with her tactics. Let me explain why.
1) She was arrested. This helps no one. In my opinion, activists getting arrested is actually detrimental to their cause. A) They are no longer on the street able to promote their cause. B) The general public is given the impression that protesters are miscreants with nothing better to do than cause trouble for the police.
Most people like the police and dislike people who break the law.
2) She was arrested for breaking the law. This was not some violation of civil rights on the part of the police. This was the police doing their job by arresting people who were blocking an intersection. There is nothing evil, inappropriate, or wrong about what the police did.
3) My friend and her compatriots must have spent a lot of time planning and preparing for this activity. They purchased supplies. They made a sign. They spent time and money on this project, which was then seen by the public for only a small amount of time and (due to the road being blocked) by only a few people.
That doesn't seem to be a very good return on their investment.
4) My friend and 7 other people have now been arrested and charged with a misdemeanor. That means they each owe the city up to $2,000 in fines. They will also have to pay for lawyers, and they will spend more time and more effort getting themselves out of jail and out of trouble.
OK. Here's a math problem for everyone.
Let's assume that each of these 8 protesters gets the maximum fine of $2,000. Let us further assume that they spend $2,000 each on legal fees. And let us finally assume that they each spent 40 hours of their time planning the event, carrying it out, and then getting themselves out of jail.
The total amount of time and money spent is $32,000 and 320 man hours. That is a lot of money, and that is a lot of time. And what was the end result? 30 minutes of activity witnessed by a handful of people who most likely found the entire thing tiresome and annoying.
If I had $32,000, 320 man hours and a point to make, what would I do?
I've got a few suggestions about how these good hearted and well intentioned people could have used these resources to much greater effect.
1) Let's stick with the original idea -- they want to make a huge banner that everyone will see. OK. Do that. And then, instead of blocking a major intersection with the sign, hang it from a friendly place. Hang it on the front of their house. Hang it from the front of my house. Rent a truck and hang it there and drive around town all day long.
Not only will this expose more people to the sign, it is perfectly legal. Lots of people will see the sign, get the message, and think, and nobody will get arrested.
2) I'm of the opinion the best way to do get people to agree with you / do something / think is to educate people so that they can make an informed decision about whatever it is you're advocating. The vast majority of the people in this country do not have time to read and research each issue -- even the important ones. So it is important to provide easy-to-digest, even handed information for them so that they can quickly learn about the issue.
This is what books and pamphlets are good for.
I know a bit about printing books, so let me break down what would be possible with $32,000.
Take $2,000 and pay a professional writer who is sympathetic to your cause to write a concise synopsis of your cause. Keep the rhetoric under control. Have the writer give a history of the cause, a bullet point listing of specific issues, and a list of suggested actions that the average citizen can take. These actions should be things that normal, every day people can do like calling their congress representatives, voting for specific candidates, donating money to organisations, and appearing at peaceful protests.
Take $500 and have someone design a booklet with this information in it. Make the booklet attractive, easy to understand, and interesting to look at.
Take $25,000 and print up as many copies as you can print. Say the book is 64 pages long. $25,000 would easily buy 50,000 copies, if not more. That's a lot of copies.
Take the rest of the money and use it to promote the booklet through flyers, stickers and events. Send books to newspapers. Send books to radio stations. Send books to celebrities, organisations, soldiers. Give as many copies away to people who do not know about the issue as possible. Forget your activist buddies. They already know.
Net Result
If all 50,000 copies of your informational booklet make it into the hands of people who previously a) didn't care or b) disagreed, and your even handed and educational stance managed to convince only 10% of them, you've added 5,000 heads to your cause. If you convince 20%, you've added 10,000 heads. That's already as many as were at the first peace march in Austin. That is what making a difference means. And what if you convinced 50% or 75%? You could have a veritable movement on your hands.
Doesn't that sound like a better way to use $32,000 than getting 8 law breakers out of jail?
