June 18, 2001

7:13 AM

College Students are massing to go to Europe to protest about the Kyoto treaty.While this may seem to be a non-story, the kids aren't protesting against Bush or Blair for not signing on, but to the attendees of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change for thinking that Kyoto would work in the first place.
posted by dwivian (9 comments total)

Hehe. Sounds like an onion article.

"Students not only plan to join in circle hand holding and mass pre(a)ying, buy actually assist and compliment those working the riot control"

"We want the officers to know that we want to fully cooperate and if we can organize to clean up after ourselves"
posted by tiaka at 7:30 AM on June 18, 2001

Onion.... Washington Times... Is there a real difference anymore?
posted by dwivian at 7:51 AM on June 18, 2001

Gee, I wish I was rich enough to go to Germany and counterprotest.

You've got to wonder -- college kids that can afford to fly to DC and train for a week, then fly to German and protest there for a week -- how in touch with American opinion can they really be?
posted by jennak at 8:35 AM on June 18, 2001

jennak: huh? in touch what? like Bush is under overwhelming public pressure to go with Kyoto or something? not... I doubt Kyoto'd work successfully anyway.
posted by techgnollogic at 9:08 AM on June 18, 2001

About as in-touch as any other college kid; Sounds like a good summer internship, if you can get a paper out if it.
posted by dwivian at 9:09 AM on June 18, 2001

Riot Police Internship? Reminds me a little too much of the Spies and the Youth League in Nineteen Eighty-Four:

Nearly all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was that by means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the Party. On the contrary, they adored the Party and everything connected with it. The songs, the processions, the banners, the hiking, the drilling with dummy rifles, the yelling of slogans, the worship of Big Brother - it was all a sort of glorious game to them. All their ferocity was turned outwards, against the enemies of the State, against foreigners, traitors, saboteurs, thought-criminals.

Remind you of the Freepers?

Of course, you could say the same about the protesters themselves, but at least anarchism's self-implosive tendency offsets the notion of "conformist nonconformity".
posted by holgate at 9:24 AM on June 18, 2001

Hey, these kids have a right to go and protest in favour of America's greed and self interest.
posted by lagado at 4:42 PM on June 18, 2001

You must be thinking of some different Freepers to the ones who have persecuted the staff of a certain restaurant in Austin for the past month, then. Because I'd give you more credit than that.
posted by holgate at 6:18 AM on June 19, 2001