Black Comedy
aagbayani@theguidon.com
In the wake of the protests after the suicide of University of the Philippines Manila student Kristel Tejada, Cate De Leon wrote a column in The Philippine Star entitled “Why activism is passé.”
Here, the author argued that activism is unnecessary in an era when “oppressive structures are illusions” and everything can be solved through “actual, authentic two-way communication.”
I will not go into detail as to how simplistic, illogical and insensitive De Leon’s arguments were, because I could go on forever. Instead, I’d like to argue for the continuing relevance of protest movements and hopefully offer a more nuanced argument.
Firstly, while I wouldn’t condone the extent of the damage in the protests noted by De Leon, one cannot simply reject activism in its entirety. Activism comes in many forms to give a voice to society’s marginalized. And for someone who promotes solving problems through two-way communication, De Leon did a good job of dismissing all activists with such sweeping generalizations.
You cannot just invalidate the sheer force of a mass’ emotion. Is it right to deface property in light of such an infuriating incident? That’s contentious. Is it right to be infuriated by real oppressive structures that push people to the brink? Hell yes.
One of activism’s merits is its ability to educate people on issues. Someone once told me that “when you’re 18 and on fire, a rally is an education.”
That made a lot of sense given my experience participating in protests such as Occupy Job Fair a year ago and the protest against SM Blue two years ago. There were definitely participants who weren’t informed on the issues behind the protests, but in the process, were exposed to the unfair placement systems of the Ateneo Placement Office and SMDC’s violation of zoning laws in Katipunan.
Why do young people go to protests? There are those with deep emotional connections to the issues. Others, though, may go out of sheer curiosity or for the heck of being at a rally. However, what starts as psychic contagion can develop into long-term involvement or at least emotional investment in the issue.
The same person noted though, that “when you’re pushing 40, that shouldn’t be your first option.” By then, you ought to have found other ways of educating yourself on issues and responding to them, such as fora and petitions.
The argument is that the protest movement is something you outgrow. It’s a torch you pass, and necessarily so. De Leon will disagree, but I think protest remains to be an appropriate response for particular cases and particular groups. For instance, there will always be people in power who are simply not open to dialogue and a protest is the only way to be heard.
And because the young will always be on fire, there will always be room for dissident voices to challenge the status quo. We will not always agree with their methods, but it’s an education and it has the potential to set the stage for some kind of authentic two-way communication.
In that sense, I suppose, revolution and resistance will never go out of style.
