A recurring commentary from certain segments of the local population regarding this past weekend’s anarchist rally was that it didn’t accomplish anything and was just destructive. The word was that it only created more trouble for police officers, wasted tax money, scared business owners and intimidated some Eugene citizens.
Some people used more constructive criticism aimed at the protest. While seeing the call to completely overhaul our current society as idealistic, they say at least it has merit in the fact of trying to bring about change, change to a system they see becoming increasingly more unfair.
But where were the people making those claims? Yes, a few were at the Washington-Jefferson Park, getting a first-hand look at what they eventually rebuked. Yet, the vast majority of objectors to the “Carnival Against Capital” were most likely at home, watching it all play out on television. Watching the events unfold while sitting around, maybe eating chips and dip, talking to the tube as if it could carry on a dialogue.
Well, it can’t.
And if you are going to criticize this anarchist movement, then you need to seek out more information about it, because it’s not all about a bunch of testosterone-laden punks running through the streets, breaking stuff. Those are the images that are seen because those are the images that the media want you to see.
The Emerald is not absolved from this ignorance. This newspaper doesn’t always seek out the more responsible voices in the community when it comes to finding out exactly what anarchy truly means in Eugene.
We fall into the same trap as other newspapers and the television stations in town. We splash the more vocal, more antagonistic minority voices across our pages, and call it good. We don’t take that extra step, make that simple phone call or seek out a saner opinion on the real issues and an opinion on what might be real solutions to the problem.
There are several examples of critics claiming that something they disagree with is a travesty, and yet then it’s found that the person or group doing the criticizing hasn’t even truly seen what “offends” them. The Robert Mapplethorpe photography exhibit in Cincinnati about 10 years ago falls into this category. So does Martin Scorcese’s movie “The Last Temptation of Christ,” which when it was released cause a firestorm of controversy among Catholics, although most never saw the film.
We — all of us who are not clued into the entire picture — do the same thing with the anarchists. We watch on TV a bunch of people play Red Rover in the street and curse those damn punks. Excuse us, but when did the game of Red Rover ever have anything to do with anarchy? Do you think that if Mikhail Bakunin or Emma Goldman — two anarchists fighting for the working class and women’s rights, in the 1860s and 1880s respectively — had been on the streets of Eugene this past Sunday they would have been playing Red Rover? Highly doubtful.
But don’t let the antics of a few sway your opinion of the group at-large. The next time you want to criticize the anarchists in town, find out who they really are.
Check out groups such as the Industrial Workers of the World, the Wobblies, at www.efn.org/~iwwlu. Go see what volunteers with Food Not Bombs do each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 4 p.m. in Scobert Park — yes, that’s in the Whiteaker neighborhood, but word on the street is that they don’t bite. Instead, they serve free vegan meals to the people who want some decent food.
Then, if you still don’t like their politics, or their desire to be free from such institutions altogether, at least you can make an informed opinion.
And look at it this way, at least you’ll get a break from your TV watching.