2008 Woodie Awards
Martyrdom is for Jihadists
T.J. Rakitan
Issue date: 3/23/07 Section: Opinion
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I have one question to ask all of those courageous Loggers who were booked for obstruction at the Port of Tacoma over Spring Break: what were you thinking? Raising a ruckus is one thing, but becoming a political kamikaze is quite another. Were I a betting man I'd lay 10-to-1 odds that you were all preparing yourselves with the last rites of the ship before converging on the Port, and now we're watching footage on YouTube of shouting protesters making martyrs' speeches as they gloriously give themselves up for the Cause.
Let me clue you in on a little piece of wisdom that every game theorist knows by heart: talk is cheap. I cite, as an example, film footage taken by a UPS student of various protesters clambering over police lines and into the waiting mass of officers set to arrest. Several demonstrators make short statements before they are led to the squad cars, clarifying that they are the victims of wrongdoing and the crowd cheers them on. I wonder how many of these protesters would have made any statements whatsoever had they not had that cheering throng behind them. Would the statements have been the same if the speakers were being booked for something other than obstruction?
In another film segment, shot during one of the earlier installments of the uproar, a protester wanders across the camera's field of view, notices he's being caught on tape, turns and says, "f**k the po-lice." The protester is wild-eyed and wearing a bandanna over his mouth that obscures his features. Does he remove it even though the filming is happening at least a hundred yards away from any tear-gas dispersal? Of course not. When the rubber (bullet) meets the road, he remains anonymous. Would he have made the same statement without his mask?
See, it's easier-and more immediately gratifying-to stage a protest with a bunch of other like-minded zealots than it is to get the same amount of people to flood their congressmen with angry letters. In the case of the Port of Tacoma riots, the police even met protesters halfway by playing bad guy. Suddenly, it wasn't just a group of people who wanted to end the war raising a ruckus down at the Port of Tacoma. Rather, it created a perfect setup for the proclamation of a holy cause (right to assemble; end an unjust war) and the vilification of all those in opposition. It became an angry and repressed mob of freedom-fighters heroically pitting itself against the conglomerated evil of the multinational corporations, the Bush Administration and the Tacoma Police. Writing letters to your congressman doesn't dare compare with that kind of action.
Let me clue you in on a little piece of wisdom that every game theorist knows by heart: talk is cheap. I cite, as an example, film footage taken by a UPS student of various protesters clambering over police lines and into the waiting mass of officers set to arrest. Several demonstrators make short statements before they are led to the squad cars, clarifying that they are the victims of wrongdoing and the crowd cheers them on. I wonder how many of these protesters would have made any statements whatsoever had they not had that cheering throng behind them. Would the statements have been the same if the speakers were being booked for something other than obstruction?
In another film segment, shot during one of the earlier installments of the uproar, a protester wanders across the camera's field of view, notices he's being caught on tape, turns and says, "f**k the po-lice." The protester is wild-eyed and wearing a bandanna over his mouth that obscures his features. Does he remove it even though the filming is happening at least a hundred yards away from any tear-gas dispersal? Of course not. When the rubber (bullet) meets the road, he remains anonymous. Would he have made the same statement without his mask?
See, it's easier-and more immediately gratifying-to stage a protest with a bunch of other like-minded zealots than it is to get the same amount of people to flood their congressmen with angry letters. In the case of the Port of Tacoma riots, the police even met protesters halfway by playing bad guy. Suddenly, it wasn't just a group of people who wanted to end the war raising a ruckus down at the Port of Tacoma. Rather, it created a perfect setup for the proclamation of a holy cause (right to assemble; end an unjust war) and the vilification of all those in opposition. It became an angry and repressed mob of freedom-fighters heroically pitting itself against the conglomerated evil of the multinational corporations, the Bush Administration and the Tacoma Police. Writing letters to your congressman doesn't dare compare with that kind of action.
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