WAR IS HERE AND WE ARE SIPPING TEA
War has started on the Russian/Ukrainian front, it's an all-out war, and as I write this sitting on the university campus in London trying to convince everyone I meet to come with me and arrange an anti-war protest. I feel that I am completely lost and helpless.
In the age of social media, people don't just gather on a protest anymore and London has lost its place when it came to being the beacon of change led by the people for the people of the people.
No one cares. The students I talk to don't feel like protesting- they don't believe in it saying well no one is doing it. But isn't that the point?
When everyone is sleeping, you come to wake them up from their slumber. Isn't that protest? Isn't preserving your right when everyone has left the reason we protest?
I come from a country(Bangladesh) where protesting doesn't mean anything at all and we still protested, our blood boiled when there was something wrong, we knew there was no way this would have an impact, still, we protested.
We protested wars, we protested against inequality, and to be honest none of us won, not immediately of course.
Protests don’t always become successful that’s the thing about protests. The voice of the people needs to turn into action. And it doesn’t always work.
Again why would you even believe me? In the age of social media and disinformation where everyone wants to make money off of you, there is no one who will believe you because you might also be trying to profit from them.
Perhaps this is what happened with the rise of social media. People stopped believing one another and you have to go through a platform, an event, or something to actually meet talk, love, or protest.
I think we are completely able to do something very radical in this time and age because we understand the processes of manipulation better than we ever did. The young people probably know better than I do.
They understand passive manipulation biological and emotional hacking. We understand what its doing to us. But we are still inactive, emasculated?
And of course, why would you believe in me? Why would spend an hour wasting on the road where your voice won’t be heard.
I don't believe our protests changed anything. It probably didn’t change anything. But-now five years later the impact of those people that worked with us all, feels empowered, they feel their ideas matter now. They didn't feel they could achieve something too, we changed that by showing them that we can get together and we are not alone!
It is what we get from protests we find our crowd and support so we dont feel voiceless when we against all odds raise our voice.
PROTESTS ALWAYS MATTER!
Even when there is no one on the streets you can be the only one.
যদি তোর ডাক শুনে কেউ না আসে তবে একলা চলো রে
If no one has responded to your call go alone — Rabindranath Thakur
