I was watching an AIDS special on PBS last week and it talked about gay activists and their protests. In some protests they’d have people yelling ‘boycott’ on wall street to get companies to lower drug costs. North Korean protesters stand in front of holocaust museums with pictures trying to draw similiarities between the holocaust & north Korea. People protesting war stage ‘die ins’ where they lie in the street pretending to die.
I must admit this is all really interesting. Is there a specific method of tactics and theatrics that are used in political protests to accomplish goals or are people just winging it? A boycott that wasn’t on wall street probably wouldn’t have been as effective for lowering the price of AIDS drugs, and a north korean protest that wasn’t near a holocaust museum wouldn’t be as emotional. Is there a pattern or method to how protests are held, or a manual or anything like that or are people just making it up as they go? Standing on random street corners with signs really doesn’t have the emotional and psychological strength of some of the modern political protests with things like die ins, strategic boycotts, etc.