Hmmm, things seem to spin off on a tangent since I mentioned direct action. I prob didn't explain things very well and certainly didn't mean to dismiss the whole thing out of hand.
The main reason I brought it up was just that it occured to me in passing that there might be more to the 'political refusal of politenes' or whatever we want to call it than just how you conduct yourself in conversation, spoken or written. I suppose I was trying to see k-punk's ideas in a sympathetic light, trying to find some application of them that might be more productive than what he himself appears to practice.
(To be fair, I don't know a great deal about what he does when he's not blogging or writing books. He might be involved in all sorts of practical political things, though part of me kind of doubts it. I do know that he attempted for a time to implement some of his ideas through his college teaching, but if I understand his recent blog entrys correctly then he has given this up because of frustration at the wider structure of academia and further education. That's obviously a shame in may ways, though I can understand where he's coming from, similar feeling were part of the reason why I never attempted to go into teaching after graduating).
But yeah, public protests... I am aware that a vast range of different things could fall under that (very vague) rubric, that they can generate some productive outcomes, and that they can have many valid aims that go beyond some dream of instant revolution/riot/meltdown of the city/whatever (which I'm not sure if I support, anyway). Simply gaining publicity for your cause by showing your presence can be a legitimate aim. Temporarily disrupting an activity you are opposed to can also be worthwhile, in that it can show the powers that be the depth of your opposition, and perhaps give them a bit of a scare, even if you know there's no real prospect of making the disruption permanent. And of course beyond this, there's the way that large public protests can bring people and groups together who may have similar beliefs but not previously had contact or been aware of their solidarity.
However, despite all this, part of me is a bit cynical and despondent about the way 'the public protest' seems to have become ritualised, become a spectacle where every group involved knows their role and plays up to it. The protestors get to meet up, have a bit of a party/sing-along, know that they're likely to get messed about by the police in a way that gives them a feeling of validation in their efforts, but also with the knowledge of their being a limit to the level of risk and danger they'll have to expect. The police know that they can contain the protestors easily, and get the opportunity to trample right over people's ordinary civil liberties, as long as they hold back from any proper physical stuff that might land them in prosecutions or bad publicity. I suppose in this regard the G20 was a bit of a surprise in that the police 'went too far', inflicted more actual damage than would be usual these days, at least when there's cameras present...
