In an op-ed in Sunday's New York Times, Sudhir Venkatesh wonders why the "populist rage" regarding the Wall Street and A.I.G. and the bailout hasn't led to riots or protest. He writes, "Today widespread anger and collective passivity exist side by side." We're angry, but we're not going to do anything about it.
Sudhir gives some reasons for this passivity. We expend our anger on the Internet and blogs and then don't have any anger left for real protests. "Technology separates us and makes more of our communication indirect, impersonal and emotionally flat". We are too embarrassed about the source of our anger, ie high credit card debt, to want to go out and make our mistakes public.
It's a very interesting column; worth a complete read. Sudhir is a University of Chicago trained sociologist, who has made his fame by hanging out with drug dealers on the Southside for a couple of years. His book, Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets
I liked this column in many ways. Echoing Putnam, Sudhir recognizes that the decline in connectivity of people and the role that technology has played in our isolation. But he goes even further. He said that we expend our anger on the Internet and then lose the passion to take it to the streets. I'm sure that he's right about that.
But Sudhir conflates riots with protests, and they are very different. True riots, such as the one that describes happening over public housing in Chicago in 1992, aren't happening by blog readers. The folks that he described throwing bottles and shooting off their guns aren't leaving comments on Powerline. And I am not a fan of riots. They are random, dangerous beasts and only lead to political change when there are dead bodies on the ground. Don't like 'em.
Protests on the other hand are more organized, focused, and politically effective. They need calm direction and organization. The folks that organize protests are blog readers and may be spending quite a bit of time on the Internet. Is all the time online leading to real protests? Well, the research on that question is mixed. There are certainly many stories about people using Meetup.com to find each other and organize. Organizers can set up websites and e-mail campaigns to get more people involved. Others have found that bloggers exhibit no change or even a slight decrease in real political participation after starting their blog.
Why hasn't there been more evidence that Populist Rage turning to Populist Protest? Well, people are worried about it. Security has been increased in front of my husband's Wall Street firm. But, for the most part, it hasn't materialized for a number of reasons.
One, people don't get it. They have no idea why the stock market plummeted, why their retirement accounts shrunk, and why their house lost half its value. The words "sub-prime mortgage" have a chilling effect on protest.
Two, it hasn't hit home for many people. If you don't live in Michigan, haven't retired yet, don't need to sell your house, and haven't lost your job, the economic recession is still very abstract. Maybe in another year, the pain will be more obvious. If the MTA increases the fares on the subways again, then there might be action.
Three, people still like Obama. They believe that he will sort out all this mess. He has about another nine months, before they lose their patience.
Sudhir writes, "Fury can inspire real protest, nonviolent civil disobedience, even good old-fashioned, town-hall meetings. That's how we'll recover our public life and perhaps help one another through this crisis -- storming angrily into the streets and then, once we're out there, actually talking to one another." Yes. I like fury, but we're not there yet.