I didn't go the ones this past weekend, nor would I, given who's organizing them and the emphasis that being put across. The reports I got from others, both east and west, pretty much confirmed what I suspected would take place, so I was able to spend time with my wife and kids instead. A far more pleasurable pursuit.
But I have been to countless rallies and marches in my lifetime, and was very active before and during the last Gulf War, engaged to the point of receiving death threats on the phone and threats of violence at campus events. So, I mean, I do know what the shit looks and feels like. And there were sectarian nuts then as well, but I don't recall so many rallies being organized and run by the creeps who're doing it now.
As for the assessment, my point is that in the early 70s elites were in a panic over people in the streets and the cost of the war, both financial and political. It was all new to them. This led to a number of studies that focused on how to get around such unpleasantness, and for the most part, the elites pretty much have. They've gotten savvier over the years, which is why an ANSWER "antiwar" rally doesn't count for much in their eyes, but massive rallies against international capital and Black Bloc attacks on cops guarding international financiers do. Like I said, if there's any insecurity among elites regarding the unwashed, it's in these latter actions, not the ones that took place over the weekend.
DP