Raj Patel: Polite Laughter on the Mall

via CommonDreams:




Published on Monday, November 1, 2010 by Huffington Post
Polite Laughter on the Mall

by Raj Patel


Hundreds of thousands came. Theresa Floyd, a 19 year old student and poet, flew from California to try to make the world "marginally better". Wassim Shazad, a 36 year old brick shithouse of a former-Marine drove four hours from North Carolina, to take aim at racial stereotypes of Muslims in America. For nearly everyone I spoke to, this was their first rally.

As rallies go, it was a little unrepresentative. It began, for instance, exactly on time, and just before the cameras went live, a little overture played over the sound system: Robbie Williams' Let Me Entertain You. Philadelphia funk ensemble The Roots kicked off for half an hour, followed by Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, TV's Mythbusters, who performed a series of experiments on the crowd.

People were encouraged to stomp together to create a miniature earthquake (it worked, a little), or to propagate a crowd wave to the back of the assembled masses which took 54 seconds to travel the length of the Mall outside Congress. One of the oddest experiments, and I fear we'll have to watch the Discovery channel to find out the myth they were busting, involved getting everyone to make a range of sounds simultaneously, with noises ranging from 'laughing like a mad scientist' to cheek-popping, to polite laughter.

.....(snip).....

I suspect that it's through Bill and Kylie's brand of political understanding, rather than Kid Rock's, that change will happen. Yes, the punditocracy is bad, but pointing out its failure is hardly going to change it. Yes, civility is important, but that's not the same as political engagement. Pining for 'sanity' during the rise of the Tea Party is like talking about who leaves the seat up when the house is on fire. What Comedy Central offered on the mall was laughter in the dark, but it was impotently polite laughter. Perhaps that's what the Mythbusters wanted to understand. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/11/01-7

I was thrilled at the numbers. It gave me a sense that I'm not alone. And the theme of the day, no matter how carefully they avoided pushing actual candidates, was a revulsion at the tactics of the Right Wing. (Nah...not the Left Wing. The Left Wing doesn't stomp small women and handcuff reporters) I'm hoping that others watching had the same feelings.

I wish I'd seen it on TV, because it was so crowded I did not see or hear a thing.

But the signs and costumes were cool.

so would have had a GREAT view, but did not stay there because I wanted to run around and get pictures. Great fun.

But even now, I have not seen what went on on that stage all day. I'll get around to it. I was off to the side of the stage when The Roots got started, as described above.

Sat down about 10:30 already crowded. We tried to have a meetup at the Smithsonian Castle but the crowd threw everyones timing off. We were on the 2nd train in from Tysons Corner, which is a 2nd stop, and it was SRO!! I figured then it would be a good turn out. We dropped by Friday AM to check it out and were even interviewed on local TV, CBS CH #9.

I just returned from the polls and it appears that it will be a good turn out. That will help us more than them.

If you missed this post: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9430583

I hope Kentucky does not replace the cretin Bunning with the dullard Rand.