Diversity of idiots
Against the peoples will,
The system is making us ill,
Politicians are lyin'
So with black flags flyin'
We'll go storm parliament hill!
- Doggerel on the Web site of anti-capitalist protesters.
It's pathetic as a limerick, shallow and contemptible as a political philosophy. But it sums up the mentality behind elaborate plans to create chaos during the G8 meeting of western leaders.
Canada is playing host to the June 26-27 summit meeting at Kananaskis, Alta., which is more easily protected than the centre of a major city. That decision has condemned our capital, and Calgary as the closest big city to Kananaskis, to a couple of days of banal rhetoric, litter, broken windows and overtime for police - and that's the best scenario.
The CBC has opted to broadcast Canada Day celebrations from Charlottetown rather than Parliament Hill, because of fears protesters would wreck facilities put up in advance of the July 1 show.
As the home of Confederation talks, Charlottetown would be a fine choice as part of a plan to move the celebrations around Canada. But that's not the motivation; fear of thuggery and vandalism is. The question arises - who's running this country, anyway?
Not that anyone can be faulted for being overcautious. The bits that protesters have revealed on the Web (www.takethecapital.net) tell enough:
"Activists ... will converge in Ottawa in solidarity with protests in Alberta, and with resistance to capitalism and imperialism worldwide, two days of protest ... organized on the basis of a respect for a diversity of tactics ... in a context of mutual solidarity and respect for all participants."
Get it? "Diversity of tactics" is code for "be as violent as you want to be." A highlight — if that's the word — will be "snake marches" through Ottawa, "with the goal of paralysing the city and disrupting the political operation of the G8's Canadian headquarters:'
The Web site gives the Ottawa addresses of G8 embassies, government departments and private firms involved in world trade (hint, hint, they all have windows!). It promises "demonstrations of all kinds, popular education, civil disobedience and direct action, targeting the many manifestations of political and economic power Calgary can expect much the same.
This is tiresomely familiar. Unable to win political or public support, a furtive cabal of self-appointed worldsavers sets out to lead the masses in breaking glass, spray-painting buildings, throwing bricks at police and, often, creative uses of urine and feces.
Leading western governments are trying to spread the benefits of globalization and solve problems as well, as at the Quebec City Summit of the Americas, where they took steps to require democracy as a pre-condition for market access. But this counts for nothing to such people.
With intellectually and politically bankrupt rhetoric and tactics, these orchestrated "spontaneous" protests bring together a loose mix of idealistic undergrads, attention-seekers, zanies, unreformed Trotskyites, anarchists, thrill-seekers and the well-intentioned dupes Lenin called "useful idiots."
This "movement" sagged after Sept. 11, as "diversity of tactics" lost its appeal. (The pre-rally "teach-in" this past weekend was scheduled, we note, to include propagandists from a group called Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights; there was little sign on the Web site of equal time for pro-Israel anti-globalizers.)
Well, it's a free country, and these people are entitled to free speech. They are not, however, entitled to injure police or bystanders, vandalize our beautiful capital or one of western Canada's leading cities, or disrupt life for Ottawans and Calgarians and their visitors.
We trust that police will protect public safety and property and enforce the law, keeping free speech from turning into riot, and do whatever is needed to ensure that Parliament Hill can host a successful Canada Day party a few days later, with or without the CBC.
We resent even having to pay attention to these people. George Orwell had them all figured out back in 1937, when he wrote of "the foaming denouncers of the bourgeoisie ... and all that dreary tribe of high-minded women and sandal-wearers and bearded fruit-juice drinkers who come flocking towards the smell of 'progress' like bluebottles to a dead cat."
We hope it pours rain on them, day and night.