HPRgument Blog — March 19, 2011 3:19 am

Is the Rally Enough?

By Max Novendstern

It’s been a joy watching rallies erupt all across the world. From late February to early March alone, we’ve seen rallies in the Middle East, in Wisconsin, and then here at Harvard: first to preserve federal funding for AmeriCorps; then to renegotiate dining hall workers wages; then to defend “youth jobs” in MA at the State House; then to protest planned parenthood funding cuts; then a rally against sexual violence in Boston clubs; and then one against ROTC on campus.

Rallies parade out into the public sphere the moral commitments we make in our private lives. They help us stand in “solidarity.” They’re fun. They’re inspiring.

But they are also, in most instances, inadequate to solve the public problems that we actually face. It’s an obvious claim but one that’s perhaps worth making (especially now): the rally isn’t enough. It’s not enough to sustain a vibrant and effective activist class here at Harvard and it’s certainly not enough if we’re actually looking to use our talents to get big things done.

This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t rally. Certainly, if I weren’t in class, I’d be on the streets in Wisconsin, and no one alive could deny the role that protest is playing in the Middle East today. But there are other problems aside from political problems that the left should concern itself with, and not everyone lives in a dictatorship. If we delude ourselves into thinking that all problems are the same, and that all solutions involve rallying, then we risk missing out on opportunities to make real, lasting change for the world. The rally, after all, is as much a defeat as it is a triumph. It’s an admission that we citizens lack the creative power to solve our own problems. It’s to say – to declare to everyone in the world – that we citizens qua activists have no recourse but to angrily demand things from those more powerful than ourselves (those to whom our protest is pressuring).

Activists are problem solvers. They change the world for the better by solving real, material problems. If we take this seriously, then it’s clear that the rally is — at its best — just one tool among many others that the activist has at her disposal. And as a tool for public problem solving, the rally is severely limited. Some questions to consider in any given instance:

(1) Can you draw a clear link between your rally and the change you seek? Tell the story of how A leads to B.

(2) Does the issue you’re addressing really lend itself to a morally unambiguous position? Is there complexity that you’re missing? If the solution is clear, why isn’t it being implemented? Does drawing a strict line in the sand between “us” and “them” advance the cause of community development or hinder it?

(3) Can we solve the problem ourselves?

(4) Are there more important problems to solve? Ones more uniquely suited to our talents and access?

Some causes fit the rally criteria, obviously; but others, many others, do not. I suspect that the defining issues of our time – from global warming to economic injustice to prison reform to sex slavery – will depend less on the public expression of moral outrage – as perhaps they did in the heady, illiberal days of the late 1950s – and more on the serious study of complex, multi-sided problems, and the building of novel solutions.

At its worst, I hate to say, the rally plays to some of the least seemly tendencies of the left community. It teaches a generation of Ivy Leaguers that change doesn’t take more than an hour or two of your time, and that the best way to help others is to publicize yourself.

If not rallying, what can activists do? For starters, we should think bigger and work much harder. The models are already there. The Progressives passed government reforms; they built new schools and urban youth programs; they wrote books about radical ideas like minimum wage and uncovered government corruption. Ralph Nader founded “Public Interested Research Groups.” Social entrepreneurs push products that seek social transformation. There is no obvious answer. Everything is on the table. Serious activists should act in the public sphere like jazz musicians do on stage – taking on the systematic exploration of the socially possible.

Our obsession with rallying as a community is indicative of our larger failure to imagine viable alternatives. We’re fooling ourselves if we think that silk-screening t-shirts and publicizing videos on Facebook is all that we can do to advance justice in this world. I don’t mean to belittle this work: I mean to urge us to think bigger. We shouldn’t just be asking people for their bodies in a crowd – we should be asking them for their minds.

Related posts:

Biden and Gibbs Mad Libs
Social Studies Walkout: Video
Google Sells Out
Breaking Down The Super Committee
Author: Max Novendstern is the former Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Political Review.
  • Sarah Siskind

    I completely agree with the premise in regards to most American protests. In all seriousness, just how articulate can argument be made when written in puffy paint on a piece of cardboard?

    However, I feel it is important to distinguish the importance of the rallies here at Harvard and those in the Middle East. The two almost seem equated in the first paragraph and whether that is intended or not, this is hardly the case. While a typical campus activist sacrifices a couple hours of their time, the protestors in Libya may well be sacrificing their entire lives. A protest in America is a manifestation of our own political institutions. A protest in Bahrain is treated as treason. Because these undemocratic regimes do not have access to “think bigger” for better or worse they must start with the protest and can only hope for the better.

  • http://www.facebook.com/mnovendstern Max Novendstern

    In my own defense, I did write:

    “This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t rally. Certainly, if I weren’t in class, I’d be on the streets in Wisconsin, and no one alive could deny the role that protest is playing in the Middle East today. But there are other problems aside from political problems that the left should concern itself with, and not everyone lives in a dictatorship.”

    But the point is well taken. I’m not arguing that the rally is bad. What I’m saying is that it’s merely a strategy, just one tool among many. And if we’re going to use this strategy, flawed though it may be, we have to justify its use relative to other strategies. Some cases fit much better than other; and if we only look to this tool, we’re going to miss all the problems that simply cannot be fixed by it. We’re going to drop the ball on the really big issues.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Say-No-To-Corporate-America/100001756749517 Say No To Corporate-America

    I agree we need to do more. Yes, “Everything is on the table”. I believe social networking is great for sharing ideas on what we can do. The politicians don’t listen to us so we have to pressure from all sides, to the government and the coroporations/banks. I think there is an important need for rallies in US because it helps to awaken others to the core problem, the government works for the corrupt wealthy and corporations (Walker is just doing what DC has done for years); Wisconsin showed viewers the media works for the corporation (6 to be exact).

    We must protest more, (non-stop would be great) remove all money from the bankster banks (use community banks or credit unions) and boycott all corrupt companies (buy organic and you won’t support Monsanto). We should all carefully consider who we give our dollars to, because that dollar is power, and we can not afford to have it used against us. There are changes to be made on a local government level (deny corporate personhood for example). We the People must become the government. Just a few ideas but I think they would have an enormous impact on a grand scale. Our collective power has done great things before but nothing will improve for us if we sit and do nothing… this is now about our survival. There is a mass awakening to Global Capitalist Takeover and there is a globe full of pissed off people! Get Up, Stand Up Fight for Your Rights!
    http://saynotocorporateamerica.blogspot.com/ ~ Peace

  • Burl_hall

    Being a member of the Permaculture / Transition Town initiative in Lewiston ME, I think there needs to be fundamental changes in our lifestyles and our communities. I have attended rallies…..and I think they are important but are on a very low scale of importance. My work with the small parcel of land that is loaned to me by the bankers is where I put my internal changes into action. My work in Tansition Town is where I try to get the community to not rely on the sociopathology of gov’t and corporatios (that own the gov’t)….it comes down to our asking ourselves, “if I want to see change in the world, what do I need to change in myself and how can I help the community to foster a healthy life indendent of variables that are out to manipulate them for profit and instead help them ecome more self sufficient.” I also think we need to ask ourselves, do we really want the gov’t, owned by corporations, schooling our kids or determining our healthcare? How can we change this on an individual level and a community level;. For example, does money have to be the driver behind everything? Can we create a varied economy that includes barter and trade, time dollars, alternative currencies, etc. Can we begin planning to get the land out fthe hands of big business and bankers? The land doesn’t belong them, it is Nature’s land, not theirs…nor is it ours. It is ALL of ours, the trees, the air,the birds, the animals. We are but cells in a living organism…..not the King of it.

  • http://www.domain-hosting-services.in domain name web hosting

    I agree with you, but I think that, violence is not solution for everything. Some times non-violence also give solution to our problem. At last only we want to take violence in our hand. Whatever may be try to solve it, you can’t then take violence.

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