I know the three limit, sorry Doug, this'll be the last.
also notice I am doing lots of typos today...guess I have been sittin' and writing fer too long today...
Anway, as to the question...
>>
>> CB: When you say "embarrassing", I'm curious as to who you think will think
>> badly of you. Does the simplicity of voting make it embarrassing ? Maybe
>> that's why it is done behind a curtain sometimes.
One of the most common excuses I hear from people who agree with me on many issues but aren't politically active, is that they feel uncomfortable going to demonstrations and holding signs,etc. That it makes them feel embarrassed. Maybe it's not as common as I thought of an excuse, but this is what I have heard from others. Plus, a lot of other excuses...
And on some level, I agree with them, and I have told them that, and then said..."so what? That isn't a good excuse. The discomfort is a small price to pay towards the obligation one has as a citizen of this country and as a human being, to do what one can to make it difficult for the people in power to continue the occupation, theft, violence, and the destruction it is doing in our name and upon both our societies.", etc....
Maybe it is a personal thing...I mean, I also can't stand public speaking in front of large audiences, as I get terrible stage fright, but I suppress it as much as possible and do what I have to when need arises, because I feel getting the information out is worth the discomfort. Also, when I go to smaller demonstrations, say at the Defense Ministry in Tel-Aviv, with 100 people or so (sometimes many more), and we stand there with signs and yell whatever appropriate chants are of the moment, and the journalists are taking pics of us and there are many cars driving by looking, many angrily and some honking in solidarity, or if and when we block the road, and people are getting out of their cars and looking at you...on some levels I feel the gaze of the others on me and it is a socially uncomfortable situation...but again, I feel it is worth it, so I do it anyway. At very large rallies, when tens of thousands are yelling and chanting slogans, then I feel on some levels the often over-simplicity of the sloganeering and the discomfort of my individualistic side of myself that likes to stand out and not be one with a crowd in group-think...but again, I think that the importance of the being there (depending on the topic) supersedes any personal discomfort...plus on other levels I enjoy being there.
The only times I don't really have these types of feelings is when I go to an action in the Occupied Territories. I think that is because usually then, the action has a specific tangible purpose: Bringing food to a village, opening a gate, protesting physically at the Wall itself, plus it is just the demonstrators and the military or some settlers (and some journalists) and what the hell do I care what the soldiers, police or settlers think of me?..
Charles Brown wrote:
>
> Bryan Atinsky :
>> I always find it embarrassing on some level to go to a demonstration and
> yell simplistic slogans and carry signs. But that is the structure of a
> demonstration, one couldn't exactly carry a sign that went into all the
> nuances of a political stand, the font size would be so small you would need
> to be standing no more than one foot from the sign to get its message
>
> ^^^^^^^
>