Protest is performative

Protest is performative. By that I mean it is staged for an audience. Generally, an amateur production. Protest against such protest is also performative, although better scripted with nods to all the right clichés. Public intellectuals await such opportunities. They have learned to negotiate landmines in the field of ideas. One technique is to dance several feet above the field. Offer, that is, arguments that give a reassuring absence of judgement. The trick is to say little and leave the impression that you have had the last word. These are serious times, perhaps among the most critical in human history. There are mass deaths of innocent people and the unraveling of a nation, Israel, that many of us treasured as a new beginning for a group of people who suffered more than any other in the long history of injustice. Of course, there are protests and of course their fringes activities are offensive to many…and illegal, although somewhat minor. The need for action is real and the inability of governments to do more than talk is inexcusable. Let's be clear about one thing. We have not learned much from Pogo, the Possum (the famous cartoon character of another time). He famously said, paraphrasing an old war cry, "that we have meet the enemy and it is us." We, on the other hand, point fingers, not altogether randomly. In this instance, those who "protest the protest" aim at universities and at the activist idea of citizenship. There is even an elitist sniff or two at the democratic idea---that it's better when more people become involved. When fingers are actively pointing, it too often, whether intentionally or unintentionally, throws people off the track. Ironically, it is the universities to which we need to look for insight, understanding and advice at this critical moment. Let me try to set one thing straight and leave it at that. Our great universities are indeed hotbeds of destabilization. I suppose to some that makes them radical. They produce, in fact their chief purpose is to produce, new ideas. They support "research" at its most fundamental and most far-reaching level. Governments support them, corporations support them, and the sick and hungry and dying to support them because, without new ideas, we cannot survive under rapidly and radically changing conditions. Are protests good theater for social media and cable news? Of course. Do we spend precious time protesting the protests, equally well staged for different audiences. Of course. Are we letting them take up the oxygen in the room that should be used to address "real" problems? Of course. Are we pointing fingers in the wrong directions? When, alas, has that not been true. We have to get back on track.