3 Ways to Effectively Protest

Protesters outside of a Boeing Plant in 1943

News and media outlets are constantly ranting about activists, special interest groups and public protests.  If you log onto Facebook you can easily find posts about Westboro Baptist Church protesting funerals, people protesting government presence in Nevada or other more violent acts.

I am not going to tell you what to believe or what to stand for, that is only for you to decide.  However, if you need to make a large scale change to accomplish your goals peacefully and legally, whether you wish to alter government regulation or social norms or whatever your wish, you will need to go about it in a much better way than most of the people you see in the news.

Where

Many people will attempt to make their cause known by protesting in one form or another.  The biggest mistake many protesters make is protesting at an ineffective, and often inappropriate, target.  Fox News reported on the Rancher's Protest in Nevada.  While all of the cattle may have been returned to the original owner, the taking of the cattle by the federal government being the cause for the unrest (whether it was justified or not), the situation became a very dangerous one as the Fox article describes.

Protesting at the location of the issue has only put innocent federal employees at risk as well as many civilians while allowing those able to alter the issue relatively unaffected.  The federal employees do not have much of a say in the matter, they do what they must like we do to fulfill their hierarchy of needs.  Armed protest at the site of the extraction puts those federal officers on edge since they want to do their job (whether they agree with it or not) and go home safe while armed men and women are protesting.  

Location is important because the federal officers are not the ones who make the decisions regardless of how much you deter them.  Congress and the Executive Branch are in-charge of the issue, so should you not protest where they are?

Who

Now you know where to protest, and who.  Who is crucial, if your protest doesn't make the right people aware of your cause, then nothing will change no matter how many other people want it to.  I am not saying that there are all powerful people or beings that the people cannot overcome if need be, I am saying that if an invincible safe can only open with a magic key it doesn't matter what you do, you need that key.  Whomever it may be, whether it is one person or many, you need to decide who can help you make the most and best change and focus on them.

Instead of the protesters risking harm in armed protests against federal agents, resulting in the return of the cattle (for now), the protesters could have protested at locations that those who control the situation are.  If they had done so the conflict may have a long term agreement made nationwide.

Why

If you are going to try to change something, you should have a good reason.  The social media has made it easy for people to take stances on anything.  Groups try to make it worth their supporters whiles by using elaborate marketing and vague information, many groups.  So many people trying to get so much noticed can create a sea of what can seem like trivial and silly causes and goals of the uninformed.  It is actually the largest ocean in the world, you know Internet Bull Ocean.  

Do you want your cause to stand out?  Then make it legit.  Be straight with your supporters, be calm and respectful to your opposition and be right.  If you believe in your cause and the good it will do, if you know who to get support from and who to broadcast your cause to, and if you know where those people are and peacefully and respectably focus your efforts at those locations you can change the world.

Do you believe you know more ways to protest more effectively?  Tell us in the comments below, like if you like, share if you want others to read too.