Demonstration to Stop the WAR (Fri., Oct. 11)

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Sat Oct 12 15:51:40 PDT 2002


At 6:18 PM -0400 10/12/02, Michael Pollak wrote:
>But if you insist making that reduction, you have to do it equally on both
>sides of the equation. If you accept that people can support the war for
>purely emotional and symbolic payoffs (and no material gain), then you
>have to accept that people can gather in opposition for the same kind of
>reasons. And I see no reason a priori why our side has to lose that kind
>of battle.

I don't think of support for and opposition to the war as matters of cost-benefit calculations in the very short term alone either. Reduced to such calculations, though, there is a reason that the anti-war side necessarily loses out in a cheap and short war:

(A) Support for the war: no material gain + emotional and symbolic payoffs + a few short-term material pains like higher gas costs, higher heating bills, etc. + no need to get off the couch

vs.

(B) Opposition to the war: no material gain + emotional and symbolic payoffs + many short-term material pains, not just higher gas costs, higher heating bills, etc. that everyone pays for, but also considerable pains in the ass spending time, energy, and sometimes even money organizing or participating in demos, vigils, sit-ins, calls to elective representatives, etc. (I spend a lot of time, energy, and money doing what I do, while catching flaks from not just supporters of the war but my fellow activists who call me out when I drop the ball, etc. -- and I don't think I'm among the most active anti-war activists.)

I'd have to admit that (A) beats (B) in a very short-term cost-benefit calculation.

A long and costly war -- costing both money and human bodies -- is another matter entirely. -- Yoshie

* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>



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