Peace, to the highest bidder

By Sara Nso
Adelante contributor

You can’t even be a pacifist anymore!

AP Photo/Cesar Rangel Carrying a photo of President Bush and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar labeled "Mr. and Mrs. Death," demonstrators march through central Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, March 22, 2003, to protest the war in Iraq. Aznar's approval rating has dropped 10 points in three months, tumbling to 31 percent. Sign behind reads, in Spanish, "Killers to The Hague."

Until recently, the Spanish people were holding massive demonstrations against a war that their government insisted on supporting, in spite of the lack of popular backing. Many of us now wonder how it came to pass that the peace protests, once characterized as jovial and festive, are now branded in the press as violent and unruly.
Although there are very few of us protesting, we have made significant progress, but now we are being confused with demonstrators in distant Spanish cities attacking shopping centers, fast food establishments, political party headquarters, and other public properties behind the rallying cry of “No War!”
When did our pacifist fervor become prisoner to the uncivilized, the violent, the quarrelsome? How is it possible to manipulate the human tragedy of war as an excuse to commit acts of vandalism?
These vandals, however, have been outbid by many others that, demonstrating a brutal cynicism, have commercialized this crisis from the start.
The opposition to the government and the unions led the way, politicizing the citizen protests. They had it easy: just one year before the general elections, the masses took to the streets to demonstrate their discontent with the behavior of the government, with the opposition and the unions emerging as the voice that represented them in the most opportune moments.

The media wasted no time in joining the fray. On the governmentally controlled public television network, more than one reporter hurried off to capture peace protesters on live coverage. The private networks also took advantage of the pacifist movement to boost their ratings.

The appearance of violent protests gave the government influential arguments for disqualifying the popular movements that were tarnishing the government’s public image.

And now the students have entered the market!

It would seem there is no road left for peaceful protest but to abandon the classrooms or organize nocturnal sit-ins at the universities, which have the atmosphere of just another crazy college kegger. Not everyone disrespects the pacifist movement, but unfortunately too many view these acts as nothing more than a pretext for shamelessly skipping classes.

Gentlemen, please place your bets!

Confronted with this desolate landscape, one can only ask whether anyone really cares about the war: the millions of homeless, the civilian victims, the destruction, the hatred, the barbarism... And yes, although many may have the impression that Europeans don’t care, we also mourn the deaths of young English and U.S. soldiers. Many of us are truly worried.

But what act of rebellion remains for those of us who do not wish to enter the dynamic of this pacifist auction, with each component going to the highest bidder? Nowadays, the implacable condemnation.

Gentlemen, the bets are now closed!