Liberty Maven

Robert Higgs smacks another home run in his latest commentary. He lists a few lessons that he learned through his own protests and political demonstrations of the Vietnam war and seeks to pass on that knowledge to us today.

In lesson two he notes that it takes all kinds to make up a demonstration.

Lesson number two is that the people in the demonstrations are there for all sorts of reasons, despite what one might suppose from their announced issue(s) as signified by signs, banners, and group statements. I often bemoaned the lack of seriousness in many of the antiwar demonstrators with whom I marched. A great many of the younger ones seemed to be there mainly because demonstrating against the war was, literally, a sexy thing for a college student to do: at the demonstration, one might meet someone suitable for a not-very-subsequent sexual liaison—in plain language, participating in a demonstration served as a reasonably promising avenue to getting laid. Beyond this quite understandable motivation, however, people had all sorts of other reasons for participating.

Some fancied themselves radicals out to overthrow the government. Others were worried that children, grandchildren, or other relatives and friends might be drafted, shipped to Vietnam, and killed. Some of us actually cared about the countless hundreds of thousands of Asians being slaughtered by U.S. forces for no good reason. Although we were all against the war in some way, our ways varied widely. The participants in most demonstrations, including the recent one in Washington, no doubt have this same heterogeneous quality. In a protest, however, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

The recent 9/12 DC and Tea Party demonstrations will certainly make most of us feel better but how much will it really change things? Higgs makes some other great points in his column including why he chooses to no longer participate in such demonstrations. Read the rest of it now.

Also, if you happen to be in the general vicinity of George Mason University on October 5th you can eat some free pizza and hear Robert Higgs lecture as part of the Economic Liberty Lecture Series at the school. Details are posted by the Future of Freedom Foundation, a co-sponsor of the series.