Say you are a concerned citizen, not specifically partisan, but one who may stand behind these often empowering and moving messages: People need to stand up for what they believe in and exercise their rights. We need to protest the injustices dictated by government and private interests. We need to fight for issues like adequate funding for social programs and public education. Mobilization of the masses is what can save society from the few who refuse to play nice.

You may feel that these sorts of calls to action seem to resonate well during these trying, fiscally insufficient times. And rightfully so, you say! However, despite having such positive aims and wielding such rhetoric, the truth is that there is a painful reality that lies beneath the surface of contemporary democratic life in the United States. This truth goes beyond progress and hope, and hits deep within America’s identity, and you should, as the concerned citizen, should care.

As political analyst Matt Taibbi comments: “There was a time when mass protests were enough to cause Johnson to give up the Oval Office and cause Richard Nixon to spend his nights staring out his window in panic. No more. We have a different media now, different and more sophisticated law enforcement techniques and, most importantly, a different brand of protester.” What he is referring to is the reality that simply grouping together in often haphazard ways won’t cause the same societal tension for change that it once did.

America has “matured,” especially in regards to the marriage of politics and economics―now largely dominating the direction of our society. So has consumerism, having taken hold of most people as intellectualism and passion for real system-wide improvements were replaced by pleasure, individualistic conformity, and complacency.

To continue this tragic diagnosis, I’d like to point out how individualism has become the new conformity, how the media has learned to control the flow of information and dismiss most protesters, and how massive deficit spending has created a monster out of America’s military-industrial complex, warping the economy to focus more on ever-increasing profits for a tiny group of capitalist elites. If you don’t believe me, then look at popular culture and clothing, watch the news (if you can even call it that anymore), and the wars our country wages all across the world, most recently and publicly, the ones in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then do something somewhat un-American. Ask a politically aware foreigner of what they know of the US and how our behavior has impacted their country or region. For the most part―if you have been in the dark about these matters―you will be shocked.

These examples can be studied on their own in terms of their validity and affects on American society, but I would like to return to the issue of the unfortunate ineffectiveness of public movements domestically, today. If one asks a fellow student or passer-by on or near the DVC campus what they envision protests to be, you’ll most likely get the mental image of a scene from a 60’s era news-reel covering the now legendary anti-war and human rights protests. Those memories were of a time when large public demonstrations could shake the foundations of society. Aside from questioning the established way of things with radically different appearances, our political system’s strength was weak enough to be in open defiance with. On top of that, the organizational qualities were top-notch to effectively and consistently get the message across.

Unfortunately, those valuable components no longer apply in the same way. You can see this through how today’s active and energetic youth seem to be increasingly angered and disillusioned with the lack of meaningful societal response. Without adapting, they continue employing much of the same strategy to address a 21st century issue within the most powerful empire the world has ever seen.

My recommendation, if I were of the activist mindset, would be to channel that largely constructive energy into better organization with the goal of targeting the flow of the economic system itself. If I was recommending a course of action for those of the professional and intellectual camp, however, then I would advise first gaining access to positions of power within the political system and then gradually helping to enact internal to outward systems change. Do not trust the establishment, because they have taken your rights as citizens to direct the societal debate. To make a difference, you have to be a threat. So read more, study more, and understand that the “party” has been over for a long time; then act.

“Protests can now be ignored because our media has learned how to dismiss them, because our police know how to contain them, and because our leaders now know that once a protest is peacefully held and concluded, the protesters simply go home and sit on their asses until the next protest or the next election.” – Matt Taibbi

references @   http://www.16beavergroup.org/mtarchive/archives/001278.php

                             http://www.ted.com/conversations/5028/why_protests_don_t_work_in_the.html

                             http://33revolutionsperminute.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/simon-jenkins-doesnt-get-it-protest-and-nuisance-at-occupy-london/