A GROUP of Venable School second graders were paraded before City Council last week to protest the sordid state of 14th Street, lobbying local politicians to do something about beer bottles, pizza boxes and other post-party refuse that frequently litter the area around their elementary school. While it was very likely an indignant teacher rather than particularly pugnacious seven year olds who spearheaded the appearance, many would argue that the trip provided the children with a valuable lesson in civic participation. Unfortunately, by teaching young Americans to run to the government at the slightest sign of controversy, we are perpetuating a major problem of modern activism.
Somewhere between the grassroots movements of the early 1960s and the modern era of "protest," in which every extremist contingent from Greenpeace to the NRA employs a troop of fulltime lobbyists, activists realized that the government was not their ultimate enemy, but rather their best friend. Instead of organizing demonstrations and attempting to sway public opinion, activists now head for Capitol Hill (or stroll down East Main Street to City Hall) when they want results.
Prevailing wisdom seems to hold that if your neighbor is doing something you don't like, it is reasonable, efficient and even democratic to leaf through local regulations, file bureaucratic paperwork in triplicate and haul him before a magistrate. When a corporation's behavior concerns citizens, they call the feds. When people are morally offended, they seek legislative retribution.
Precious few are social initiatives that focus on directly influencing society -- those that still do so are for the most part particularly radical and either lack the resources to mount effective lobbies or are too anti-establishment to pander to "the man." Apparently, we would rather take refuge in the paternalistic power of an extended government than handle our political activism ourselves.
Few would deny that there are social problems that require government intervention. Some issues -- and some foes -- are beyond the reach of even the most dedicated social crusaders. But the extent to which government is brought into the mix today borders on absurd. America seems to have forgotten about the power of public dissent and demonstration that once drove social progress. Citizens now contently view the realm of civic discourse as a courtroom perpetually in session, always ready to bring the law's power to bear.
Perhaps Americans are happy to be complicit in such a scheme because they fail to recognize that all government power is based on the threat of violence. Traffic citations and coding violations are not friendly messages from the community; rather, they are a demand backed by physical force. Change your ways or men with guns will force you to do so. As a society of modern, free-thinking individuals, it seems we should be able to address a good many social concerns without immediately resorting to force.
Even if we feel no ethical compulsion to avoid involving an authoritarian power in every aspect of social life, there are very real pragmatic reasons to be considered. Government is such a seductive target for activists because it allows them to lobby a small group of easily corruptible individuals instead of testing their platform against society as a whole. Thus while government can make pleading a popular case easier, it also allows vocal, wealthy and often unpopular minorities to enforce their will upon us all.
When Lisa Shook led her second graders before City Council, she ignored the possibility of taking personal action. She did not teach the children to hang signs up and down 14th Street, to march in protest or to go door to door and discuss the issue with their fellow citizens. Instead she taught them to run to an authority that can forcibly handle the situation.
And how will the City answer their plea? By writing more tickets and issuing more threats.
Activists today (and we are all activists to some degree) are lazy
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