Quote:
Originally posted by Larry_OHF:
My question is,
Has a Rally of Protest ever stopped a President or other leader of any country to not follow through with his/her own plans? I am sure that small protests in minor scales have stopped buildings from being torn down or a park to remain intact...but has a protest ever proved effective on the big scale?
If so, then please talk to me about them. If not, then why do people continually hope that their vioce will be heard and accepted if they have never had a positive outcome? Even rats learn to not open the wrong door when they get shocked so many times.
|
I point to the American civil rights movement as a historic testimonial that all sorts of 'passive resistance' tactics, including protest rallys, can manifest social change.
In reality though protest rallies are just one facet of a grass-roots activism campaign. In and of themselves the impact is probably little with regards to shaping politcal policy, but they make excellent focus points to recruit for a cause as well as let the media and public know that people care enough about an issue or set of issues to gather and demonstrate.
The exception is demonstrations on a massive scale, like the movement that grew due to the Vietnam war. We may not have withdrawn from that conflict when we did, if it wasn't for the millions of Americans taking the issue to the streets in cities all across the nation. Who knows for sure?