Quote Originally Posted by FunkyDexter
Just to be clear, when I said he'd demonstrated the futility of protest, I really didn't want to detract in any way from the nobility of what Thic Quang Duc did. This was a guy who gave up his life in one of the most painful ways I can imagine to bring the plight of his fellow budhists (who were being horribly persecuted) to the attention of the world. He did this for the good, not of himself, but of others. Budhists at the time were being imprisoned and tortured for no greater crime than pursuing their religion. For him to make this sacrifice in the hope of bringing a stop to that situation is neither stupid nor selfish.

I also didn't want to imply that the act of protest was in any way invalid. In fact, I've been a political activist for most of my life. I was involved in the poll tax demonstrations (which sadly descended into rioting but I still hold the police responsible for that rather than the demonstrators - coraling thousands of people trafalgar square was only ever going to have one outcome), I marched against the removal of housing benefit eligibilty from students, I confronted Michael Howard over his immigration policies when he visited Winchester and made the local TV news calling him a hypocrite (he's only second generation himself), I've spent many a happy hour standing in Southampton city centre handing out leaflets for a variety of causes I felt were worthy of my time and I've lost count of the number of minor rallies and demonstrations I've attended over the years,

Rather, I simply no longer believe that protest actually effects change. This is true in the UK and is far more true in the US. This was finally brought home to me in the 'Don't Attack Iraq' demonstration. This was the single biggest protest the UK has ever had... ever! It was world wide. It was attended, not by screaming extremists, but by the moderate, educated and erudite mass of our population. It was entirely peaceful and planned in full accordance with the government's increasingly draconian anti-protest legislation (how dare a government tell me that I can't protest within their earshot?). We followed all the rules. We played the game their way. They ignored us completely. We made no difference at all. OK, I didn't expect to change the way things were going and I was pretty sure the attack would go ahead no matter what I did, but you'd have thought we might have caused some discussion, at least.

Our governments have become so disconnected from us that they couldn't give a toss about our opinions except for a period of about 6 months every 5 years, and then only if you happen to live in a close run constiuency. Our voice no longer has any meaning or any weight. If you think you live in a meaningful democracy, you've already swallowed the opiate.

edit> Crypto, that tenpence is still up for grabs. Obviously, given your propensity for mugging old ladies I don't feel I can trust you with it until after you've burned to death. Will you be able to collect? I don't want to have to stump up for the postage.
I am not reading all of that, someone summarise.