Globalization of angerAcross the globe, 2011 has been a year to rattle rulers and authorities. We have seen the Arab spring, the street marches and battles in capitals from Athens to Madrid, the riots in London, the protests in Israel, and the demonstrations in Delhi. Popular protest on such a scale and to such extent has not been seen for years. Both the students and workers mobilized in these cases.
Protest is always local, but theories seek a global compass - a pattern of discontent across cases. What we are seeing today is `globalization of anger`. There is no doubt that from SMS to Facebook to Twitter, grassroots protest is more easily mobilized today than it has been in decades. The animating question should be: Is there in fact a common, unifying thread to these worldwide protests?
Take the London riots. London`s opinionators and theorists were in business last month as the streets of their city burned, filling TV channels with diagnoses of what was happening. They sniffed the reek of moral social decay. The root cause was widening inequality and social deprivation exacerbated by unregulated capitalism.
In India, the agitations have brought thousands to the Ramlila Ground in Delhi over the past weeks. The Indian protests may not be as pure as their instigators attest, but they`re peaceful, for a start, and much more purposeful in their aims than the London eruptions. What could be plainer and more explicit than supporting a hunger strike to eradicate corruption?
But there is at least one connection between Delhi and London and the other far-flung ruckuses of 2011 - Those taking to the streets are not typically `the masses` of certain historical precedents, but members of the middle class. It`s as true of Anna Hazare`s ragtag bands of supporters as of the college kids and techie professionals of the Arab Spring. By the material standards of India or Africa, the so-called deprived of London are also relatively privileged, with refrigerators and microwaves at home and Blackberries in their pockets.
These global agitations have taught us one thing and that is the group of people who have most reason to be angry are those who are most vulnerable to the effects of a corrupt society, those most wracked by the absence of government aid.
Protest is always local, but theories seek a global compass - a pattern of discontent across cases. What we are seeing today is `globalization of anger`. There is no doubt that from SMS to Facebook to Twitter, grassroots protest is more easily mobilized today than it has been in decades. The animating question should be: Is there in fact a common, unifying thread to these worldwide protests?
Take the London riots. London`s opinionators and theorists were in business last month as the streets of their city burned, filling TV channels with diagnoses of what was happening. They sniffed the reek of moral social decay. The root cause was widening inequality and social deprivation exacerbated by unregulated capitalism.
In India, the agitations have brought thousands to the Ramlila Ground in Delhi over the past weeks. The Indian protests may not be as pure as their instigators attest, but they`re peaceful, for a start, and much more purposeful in their aims than the London eruptions. What could be plainer and more explicit than supporting a hunger strike to eradicate corruption?
But there is at least one connection between Delhi and London and the other far-flung ruckuses of 2011 - Those taking to the streets are not typically `the masses` of certain historical precedents, but members of the middle class. It`s as true of Anna Hazare`s ragtag bands of supporters as of the college kids and techie professionals of the Arab Spring. By the material standards of India or Africa, the so-called deprived of London are also relatively privileged, with refrigerators and microwaves at home and Blackberries in their pockets.
These global agitations have taught us one thing and that is the group of people who have most reason to be angry are those who are most vulnerable to the effects of a corrupt society, those most wracked by the absence of government aid.
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