We're striking out

Americans are proud of who we are, where we’ve come from and what we can do — until some movement comes along.

Protesters are just so loud, so confrontational.

“Please,” we beg. “Stop. You’re making a fool out of yourselves — out of us.”

Bloomington witnessed this phenomenon last week, when IU on Strike carried out its well-organized protest calling for lower tuition and more diversity, among other things.

When the marching began outside Ballantine Hall, several students in my class wondered aloud what the protesters were doing, indicating their complete ignorance of local news. 

Had these students bothered to open any local newspaper or even glanced at what was trending on Twitter, they would have known exactly what their peers were doing. 

One student asked, “They’re going to be arrested, right?” in a tone that suggested she thought they absolutely should be.

Perhaps this is a trite reminder, but the First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

The strikers had something to say.

They peaceably assembled to say it.

They had grievances they wanted redressed.

Other students looked on derisively. How dare the strikers interrupt their day? How dare they ask for so much? Why do they hate IU? Why don’t they just go somewhere else?

Flippant attitudes toward people who care enough to start a movement have become commonplace in the past few years. 

Occupy protesters were maligned as lazy, idealistic vagrants. Tea Partiers are dismissed for suffering from alleged false consciousness. 

For some reason, trying to make a country, state or school better is no longer an expression of love for said country, state or school. 

Instead it is perceived as ignorant hatred of a system protesters fail to understand.

None of these movements are perfect. Their methods and goals should be criticized. Good protests should spark discussion. 

But it seems like these are discussions Americans are not interested in having. We would rather complain about how strikers interrupted our day than think about the problems they see and the solutions they suggest.

We would rather dismiss them entirely than meaningfully engage.

These discussions do occur to a limited extent in the media. Newspapers and TV broadcasts report, analyze and discuss these movements in ways ranging from nuanced to absurd, but none of us bother to pay attention. 

When we do read or watch the news, it has been tailored to our preexisting belief systems and biases.

We don’t want real discussion. We want thoughts

pre-digested in ways that won’t challenge us.

The strikers tried to challenge us last week. Not surprisingly, many of us walked quickly in the opposite direction, humming with our fingers jammed into our ears.

­— casefarr@indiana.edu