Editorial

Globalization of Anger

OpinionsAlex Manley — Published February 1, 2011

One of the consequences of that is that people know about what’s going on around the world much faster than they used to—and they get up in arms about it much faster as a result.

So you have students protesting the ills of society, the near-decade long, misguided and unwinnable war that features American troops combating a guerilla-style, rag-tag army using ever newer and unpredictable tactics. You have the police forces of supposedly stable governments killing civilian protesters in cold blood.

You have people trying to assassinate American politicians. You have riots and general chaos.

Artists everywhere are getting politically aware. Anger is in the air, and change is in the wind. It all feeds back into itself. 2011 is going to be crazy, right? Well—that was a description of 1968, actually.

They had their TV, their Orangeburg Massacre, their Vietnam and Tet Offensive, their Prague Spring, French May, their RFK and MLK killings. And you have to get a sense that we may be in for another year along those lines.

For all the people who are badmouthing today’s youth about their self-centredness, lack of political awareness, brain-deadedness and general apathy—remember the G20 in Toronto last year? Remember the last couple of Anti-Police Brutality Marches in Montreal? Remember the Anti-Olympics protests in Vancouver a year ago?

The spirit of anger isn’t gone, and if we can still keep the fire burning in North America, then no one should be surprised to see the Tunisian and Egyptian people riled up. They have Facebook there too. For what it’s worth, somehow that hasn’t affected the simple truth: If your government is giving you short shrift, denying you basic rights, and evidently concentrating the country’s wealth at the top of the social pyramid through shady deals and nepotism, you take your anger to the streets. And if they come out shooting, you double your efforts.

As the spread of television and cheaper, more portable video cameras helped focus the world’s eye on the myriad civil rights injustices of the late ’60s, so too will Twitter, YouTube and Google focus the world’s eye on the injustices of today.

What we’re seeing is sort of a re-globalization of rage—that you can’t sweep little things like a 25% youth unemployment under the rug and hope everything will be alright, that people will mobilize, band together, and that well-orchestrated protests, the attention of the press and the concern of the international community can work wonders with regards to speeding up the democratic process.

So if Tunisia and Egypt are just the first and second dominos in a longer chain (let’s hope), the spirit of ‘68 is back, and even the most forward-thinking people have got to appreciate a little bit of retro in this case.

—Alex Manley,
Literary Arts Editor

This article originally appeared in Volume 31, Issue 21, published February 1, 2011.