The Independent's Terence Blacker on Anti-War Chic:
Unlike many protests in the past, from Vietnam to fox-hunting, the current campaign has the huge advantage of not involving the slightest risk to your person or your reputation. Marches are happy social events, populated by our favourite soap stars and comedians. Activism simply involves adding one's name to a few busy, concerned e-mails drawn up by other couch-protesters and then sending them on to your friends, content in the knowledge that one has played one's part.Posted by Dr. Frank at March 15, 2003 05:31 AM | TrackBackTo be anti-war means being shoulder to shoulder with the stars, buying a copy of George Michael's protest single, being seen in public with a smart "NOT IN MY NAME" T-shirt, which depicts you as both concerned and on fashion's cutting edge.
Of course, as tends to be the case in great popular movements, the trick of thinking things through or recognising complexity has been lost in the excitement and emotion. It is a perfect reversal of what has happened in the past when nations, urged on by their leaders, have rushed with blind enthusiasm into conflict.
Intoxicated by our sense of virtue, we have reduced debate about the war to a feel-good fest, full of celebrities, warm words and a fuzzy sense of generalised concern.