A little light: Chilean Winter

(Editor - Welcome to the final article of 2011 - part three of a series of articles just for wintry December, looking for a little light as the dark nights get colder. We will be back on 2nd January, in our usual Monday evening slot. A big thanks to all of the readers who visited the blog through 2010-11 and we hope to see you again in 2012.)

Whilst the Occupy protesters worldwide regroup, they can take hope from the success of other peaceful protests taking place elsewhere around the world. In particular they can look to the influence of the events of the Chilean Winter throughout the past year.

For eight months these protests have now been running - lead by students of Chilean universities. In that time (in spite of the aggressive tactics deployed to break them up) the movement has had a real affect upon public policy - even getting so far as to have spokespeople from the movement enter sit down negotiations with ministers and even the President (IBT, 2011).

One student spokesperson in particular, Camila Vallejo Dowling, has become something of a symbol for the movement (Margolis, 2011).

"You have to recognise that beauty can be a hook. It can be a compliment, they come to listen to me because of my appearance, but then I explain the ideas. A movement as historical as this cannot be summarised in such superficial terms.

"We do not want to improve the actual system; we want a profound change – to stop seeing education as a consumer good, to see education as a right where the state provides a guarantee.

"Why do we need education? To make profits. To make a business? Or to develop the country and have social integration and development? Those are the issues in dispute."

Camila Vallejo Dowling, in the Guardian; 2011.

However, she is just one of several leaders of a movement driving demands for better education, standardised education and fairer state financing (Jones, 2011). And these protests have support - attracting as many as 250,000 people (Sehnbruch & Donoso, 2011).

In the face of such a well supported movement, better education, cleaner politics and fairer finance are demands that can't be ignored forever. In Chile the senate education committee recently approved a bill that will seek to restrict profit seeking education establishments seeking state entitlements - one of the major demands of the student movement (Nunez, 2011). Breakthroughs can be made.

Even in nations under diktat, the demands of people have won out through peaceful protests - even in the face of hostile authorities. Tunisia, Egypt, and Chile have all shown the power of popular movements to be a force for good. They have also shown the willingness of young people to 'get political' when they perceive an avenue through which their voices might be heard. Both of these are modest but solid sparks of hope in the midst of dark times.

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References:
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+ IBT's 'Chile's student leader Vallejo arrives for a meeting with President Pinera at the La Moneda Presidential Palace at Santiago'; 3 September 2011.

+ Mac Margolis' 'Hard-Left Heartthrob'; in The Daily Beast; 3 October 2011.

+ Jonathan Franklin's 'Chile's Commander Camila, the student who can shut down a city'; in The Guardian; 24 August 2011.

+ Oliver Jones' 'Camila Vallejo and the Chilean Student Protests -- how to actually change policy'; in Asylum; 9 November 2011.

+ Kirsten Sehnbruch & Sofia Donoso's 'Chilean winter of discontent: are protests here to stay?'; in OpenDemocracy; 21 August 2011.

+ Maria Paz Nunez's 'Comisión de Educación del Senado aprueba proyecto que pone fin al lucro y pasa a discusión en la sala'; in Politica; 31 August 2011.

(Ed - For the not-polyglots, I suggest a trip to Google translate when checking non-English sources)

A little light: Tunisian elections

2011 has been an action packed year filled with wars, riots, protests, crackdowns and disasters:

'Overall though, the most startling thing about the year as a whole is just how densely packed with incident it's been. Last year, a woman dropping a cat in a wheelie bin was notable enough to make headlines across the globe. This year, so much has happened it's impossible to remember it all in one go. Massively significant events just drop out of your memory, only to surprise you again when you stumble across them later.'

Charlie Brooker, 2011.

Since the Arab Spring, we have seen a year of protracted clashes between the establishment and protesters. In Libya this escalated into civil war. In Syria and Bahrain, there have been allegations of systematic oppression by their governments (CBS, 2011; Irish Times, 2011). In Egypt, the military established a government after President Mubarak resigned following lengthy protests against his leadership - recently holding democratic elections to appoint a new government (Clarke, 2011).

And now in Russia protesters are out en masse claiming electoral fraud, forcing President Medvedev to take to Facebook to stress that the government was listening to the people's voices (BBC, 2011).Amongst these events, the Arab Spring sparked hopes for the emergence of a new democratic spirit; something that has made Tunisia a light during dark times. For those still engaged in the struggle against authoritarian rule, the Tunisian elections in October came as a well timed reminder of what lies at the end of the tunnel (Fernando & Mahmood, 2011). Reports have so far been complimentary of the way the elections were conducted in difficult circumstances.

Tunisia has set an example and people have taken notice.

Governments are now learning the costs of pushing ahead with unpopular policies in the face of mass public opposition - and the people are being shown what an informed and democratically committed population can do to arrest authoritarian regimes and corrupt policies.

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References:
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+ Charlie Brooker's '2011 has been like an end-of-season finale. 2012 doesn't stand a chance'; in The Guardian; 11 December 2011.

+ CBS' 'Bahrain troops lay siege to protesters' camp'; 16 March 2011.

+ Irish Times' 'Syria's crackdown'; 31 May 2011.

+ Sean Clarke's 'Egyptian elections: the buildup'; in The Guardian; 27 November 2011.

+ BBC's 'Russian election: Medvedev Facebook promise draws ire'; 12 December 2011.

+ Shehani Fernando & Mona Mahmood's 'Tunisia's voters go to the polls in Arab spring's first election'; in The Guardian; 24 October 2011.

And now for something completely different...

BBC4's Holy Flying Circus was a nice piece of television, wonderfully self-referential, and also a sad reminder of the departure of Graham Chapman, gone 'to meet the great Head of Light Entertainment in the sky' (Cleese, 1989).

Towards the end of Holy Flying Circus, there is a particular scene that will strike a chord with many of the people trying to navigate the world with reason. By the end of the infamous debate between the Pythons, Michael Palin & John Cleese, and their opponents, Palin had become badly upset. Palin stormed from the stage as soon as the debate closed, Cleese following him backstage to hear him vent his feelings:

Cleese:  I understand why you're angry, of course I do...
Palin:     They didn't listen, they didn't debate. They just shouted us
               down and played to the gallery. We took it seriously and
               they took the piss.
Cleese:  I know.
Palin:     And I thought you were going to be swaggering
               and offensive?
Cleese:  Yes. Well, I was kidding about that.
Palin:     Oh, shame. Might have actually been useful out there.
Cleese:  You've changed your tune...
Palin:     They mauled us, John! They tore us to shreds.

This point is laid out well in Ben Goldacre's Bad Science (2008). In the introduction, he writes 'You cannot reason people out of positions they didn't reason themselves into', echoing the words of Jonathan Swift:

'reasoning will never make a man correct an ill opinion, which by reasoning he never acquired...'

Jonathan Swift, in a Letter to a Young Clergyman; 1720.

Reason is the most magnificent mechanism, yet those who refuse it persist in their attempts to stymie questions and stifle debate using stubbornness, charisma or sheer volume. Bad Science is a great book for uncovering these sorts of unreasonable attempts to close down the space used for meaningful thought.

But what drives us towards such closed mindedness?

'That's the thing that's scary about monsters. Indoctrination. All it takes is one bite, one facehugger egg or one pit stop into the swamp of sadness and suddenly you're out there on the fringe - bombing abortion clinics or driving a Prius with a co-exist sticker down to your local Co-op. Human fear is nothing more than the manifestation of our aversion to the archetypal other, and our nagging doubt that we and they are one and the same. You know, Hegel, Satre, whatever...'         - Katie Willert, on After Hours at Cracked.

Cracked's team gets towards the heart of this issue, about the way our fear, particularly of the the implacable, the insatiable, the unwaveringly fundamental, can drive us towards closing our mind. It can send us running to the redoubts of belief for the protection we fear moderacy won't offer.

The American Republican Party serves as a particular example of this right now; American conservative speechwriter and commentator Mr David Frumm (2011):

'In the aftershock of 2008, large numbers of Americans feel exploited and abused. Rather than workable solutions, my party is offering low taxes for the currently rich and high spending for the currently old, to be followed by who-knows-what and who-the-hell-cares. This isn’t conservatism; it’s a going-out-of-business sale for the baby-boom generation.

I refuse to believe that I am the only Republican who feels this way. If CNN’s most recent polling is correct, only half of us sympathize with the tea party. However, moderate-minded people dislike conflict — and thus tend to lose to people who relish conflict.'

To what, then, may moderates turn to for comfort?

It is worth knowing that Asquith sealed a majority for the British Liberal Party at the1906 election with monotonous statistics; combating Joe Chamberlain's soaring stump speeches with well-evidenced argument and a calm reasoned approach.

It is worth knowing that Attlee became Prime Minister, not through wartime rhetoric, but through the hard work of home front civil administration during the second world war.

And it is worth seeing how Holy Flying Circus ends; because Michael Palin is still a national treasure; and no one knows who the Bishop of Suffolk or Malcolm Muggeridge are, beyond two people who were, once upon a time, mean to the nicest man the world.

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References:
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+ BBC4's 'Holy Flying Circus' 19 October 2011.

+ Ben Goldacre's 'Bad Science'; Fourth Estate, 2008.

+ After Hours' '4 Terrifying Psychology Lessons Behind Famous Movie Monsters'; from Cracked.com.

+ David Frumm's 'When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality?'; in New York; 20 November 2011.