Rantblings: The G20

This past week saw the G20 Economic Summit in Pittsburgh; it's a meeting of leaders from 20 major economies among both developed and developing nations. The point was to determine or formalize global economic strategies and relationships, along with a bit of just looking like people are doing something productive. Now, there were lots of folks who disapproved of the Summit, because they viewed it as a meeting of the existing economic powers attempting to maintain the status quo and keep the little guy down.

I object to this view only because I'm not sure there's adequate evidence to show that there is a global capitalist conspiracy to ruin the lives of the average person (and it's just a slightly absurd premise... capitalism relies upon distributed wealth in that if only one person or group has all the money, no one can spend any and no one can make additional money). It's only the conspiratorial element that I really have a problem with; theoretically, socialism is a great idea, which is why elements of it exist in most governments. However, the pure application of it to the point of communism (which was seemingly advocated by many of the protesters) has been proven a failure, or at least too great a risk to be worth it. One particularly ridiculous example was from a socialist newspaper being given away on the street corner at Pitt last Thursday. There were signs advocating the prevention of imperialist counter-revolution in China, Vietnam, and North Korea. I'm not that familiar with the modern politics of Vietnam, but China and North Korea are far from model socialist states. I don't mind activism, nor do I think the U.S. should be aggressively (or even not so aggressively imperialistic), but I'd really just like people to think these things through a little before they start publishing them.

On a similar note, the protests were joined by a significant minority of self-proclaimed 'anarchists.' This one really bugs me. I'd love for someone to explain it to me, but I don't see how one can be an 'anarchist' without also being a complete moron. Anyone who's been alive and in any way involved with society knows that people, while not the most vicious creatures alive, are often self-serving to the point of unkindness and danger to others (any period of time on or near a road in a city, perhaps?). How does anyone with something resembling intelligence think it's a good idea for people to run amok without any regulation whatsoever? I don't trust that in the considerable population of Pittsburgh there aren't any people who would be eager to take what is mine (including my life) because they felt like it. Unless you're 7'6", 400 lbs of muscle, and living in a world without weapons or the need for sleep, you should never come to the conclusion that anarchy is the best form of government.

Whatever, enough of that rant, the biggest problem with these anarchists is that they still tried to claim their First Amendment right to peaceable assembly while they marched through the streets breaking windows. Since destroying people's property will very rarely be an effective method of convincing them to listen to you, much less agree with you, the destruction is why I would refer to the many of the Thursday afternoon gatherings as riots, rather than protests. Protests endeavor to make a point, while these riots simply wanted destruction and media attention. Sadly, the police were at their most restrained in the early rioting and only contained, rather than suppressed the rioters. Later gatherings included a large number of uninvolved Pitt students who just wanted to see the riots/protests. They were encouraged by fliers and other forms of advertising to join the rioters in Schenley Plaza. Unfortunately, it seems by that point the police were out of patience and, from all that I hear, ended the assembly more aggressively than necessary. I just hope that some day the 'anarchist' people, the ones who organized the rioting and invited out so many innocent college students, realize that they're awful wastes of freedom of expression and assembly.

Despite my sympathy for the innocents caught up in Friday's police debacle, I do have to point out that throughout the rioting that has gone on in Pittsburgh in my 4+ years here (2 Superbowls, a Stanley Cup, several Backyard Brawls, and now this), I have never seen the police fail to warn people to get the hell off the streets when the time comes to break it up. Anyone who didn't get the hell out when they saw police decked in riot gear coming at them was being pretty fucking stupid.

This probably has missed a few of the reasons I was super pissed off by this past week's events, but it'll have to do for now.