Anonymous asked: Since you have such a low opinion on protesting I would like to know what you think of the 2008-2009 financial crisis protests in Iceland. There protesting brought down the government. They weren't even rioting, just protesting (then again they did have a definitive goal...)

Hi Anonymous,

Thanks for reaching out. It’s true, I’m grumpy about Occupy Wall Street. But, I absolutely do not have “a low opinion on protesting.” I’m from Massachusetts, womb of American rebellion, where the Boston Tea Party actually has incredibly deep meaning for us Yankees. And I’ve published on the meaning of protest in the context of environmental policy. I’ve been a collateral victim of tear gas at WTO Seattle, 1999. And in 2009 in Copenhagen, I took these amazing photos of what was dubbed the largest environmental protest in the history of the world. This particular photo is my favorite. Against a backdrop of a huge coal plant, I snapped this shot of energetic protesters riding their bikes through a swampy field in order to get around a police barrier. I too was in that mud, avoiding those very police barriers (indeed, I was confronted by police and convinced them I was a reporter. They let me go.).

Above, a shot I took of protesters at the COP15, Copenhagen, Denmark. More here.

Protest is important. I just happen to believe it should be used as a very last resort - when all else has failed, and in appropriate context.

I believe that people are deeply disengaged and detached from the democratic process, which I (rather flippantly) outlined yesterday. I blame our big fat stupid education system and, to a lesser extent, advocacy organizations that pump out petitions like confetti. They should teach and educate how to engage in the process, as I wrote yesterday. I would love to know what percentage of Occupy Wall Streeters have called their representatives over the past 4 years. I’d guess it’s a very, very low percentage. But, more importantly, I’d want to know why this number is so low? Why haven’t people been more engaged? I need data and analysis because I’m a big nerd.

There’s no comparison of OWS to the Kitchenware Revolution in Iceland. Icelanders protested for something like a year, maybe more, before the conservatives stepped down. A year of protest! It was caused (mainly) by the epic collapse of the major banks and the complete implosion of the Icelandic stock market. The stock market dropped something like 80 or 90%. EU investors pulled nearly all of their money out of Iceland’s banks, the Kroner collapsed, and inflation ran out of control. That’s not happened here. Iceland was then bailed out by other countries. The US is not even close to being bailed out by China. In Iceland, after all that hyper-collapse, the politicians remained.  If you’re asking me if protest was justified under these circumstances, then yes.

If what you’re really trying to do is get me to support the OWS, then no. At least not yet.

Cheers!

mike