Climbing Down from the Summit
September 26, 2009
And so it came to pass, the leaders and their finance ministers boarded their caulked and snapping ships for distant ports, or climbed into gilt and creaking wagons for distant capitals. The members of the press and the media hopped into their mid-sized cars and business-class airplane seats to return to newsrooms in foreign lands…
But what the residents of the City? Those who were severely inconvenienced at having such a meeting thrust upon them? They returned to a life as usual.
Now, there were no forced vacation days, or just plain days off without pay. Now, they need not worry about their children who had no school. Now, they need not worry about security checkpoints, traffic delays, fear.
And what did they fear? The unknown. When such world leaders had met in bigger cities, in capitals more used to high security measures, there had been riots, arsons, police brutality, protester destruction of property, injuries, death.
The seers, Tarot readers, Rune casters, Astrologers all came up with variations on the theme of “Tempest in a Teapot,” but nobody in the City listened. For Fear can sometimes be a kindly god, who whispers in your ear, “Stay at home, forget the world, keep close to your loved ones.”
So they did. So they did.
And today, they went on with life as usual. Or, almost usual. In the back of everyone’s mind was the question: “Why did we spend so much money to hire soldiers from all over the known world to line our streets for one man to march down the street carrying a sign that read ‘Down with Mayonnaise/Up with Hot Sauce!’”
[Edit: Check out Ali's "The Group of 20 and the Mythology of the Market"]
September 26, 2009 at 3:50 pm
For an interesting/mythopoetic take on the G20 check out this blog post by Ali of Meadowsweet & Myrrh: The Group of 20 and the Mythology of the Market
September 27, 2009 at 12:45 am
So true. What’s funny (in a sad way) is that the protesters can’t win. Everyone was braced for riots and violence, and ready with disparaging words about how irresponsible and dangerous and delusional these “out-of-towner” anarchists were (besides which, a friend of mine marched and said he recognized lots of people from the local activist scene, so the idea that they’re all from out of town is nonsense anyway). And then, in this morning’s paper, there was an article basically mocking them as ineffective and disorganized because there wasn’t that much damage or destruction. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. You’re either a public menace, or you’re an impotent failure.
It didn’t seem to occur to the writer of the article that the goal of the protest was not destruction and that the lack of violent conflict between protesters and police was actually a mark of the march’s success (with very little credit for that due to the police).
September 27, 2009 at 6:32 am
Thanks, Ali.
What is most telling about this whole situation was that the citizens and businesses of Pittsburgh were more afraid of the protesters than than the police. I saw it first hand: business closed up and boarded up, afraid of outsiders destroying what those who love Pittsburgh see as beauty.
We are not a small-minded city. We offered anti-gay discrimination and domestic-partner benefits long before much larger cities ever did, in some cases by a decade.
But, the tactics of destruction by people protesting situations that were larger than the context of a host city were not going to be tolerated.
Put another way: Pittsburghers may be pro Free Tibet, but not at the expense of window panes, dumpsters, etc. The entire progressive movement should take a lesson from the Steel City: acts of vandalism make ineffective lessons for the world press/media and the general populace.
For me, it was a great shame watching the Thomas Merton Center’s approved march being treated like a potential threat of violence, when Mr. Merton himself was committed to non-violent forms of protest.
I talked to some of the men in uniform on the street. The world may be surprised to learn that to a man, they were sincere in protecting the bystanders watching the march.
Its true, and that is weirder than fiction.