re: #21 marjoriemoon

Although your suggestion would be a significant media event, do you think it would change a single vote in the UN? Would it make that Canadian group take down their David Duke video? (Or might they put up two more just to show the Americans they can’t be pushed around?) Would it cause one rocket launcher in Southern Lebanon to be dismantled? Would it help any of the many Muslims living in the West Bank and Gaza to escape those areas in order to actually practice their religion? Would it stop the BBC from perpetuating its three-pronged stereotype that Israelis are evil, that Palestinians are helpless victims, and that predominantly Islamic nations can’t take care of themselves without the help of the British Foreign Office? Would it change the fact that both you and I would be targets if we were to visit Israel?

I’m not convinced that the answer to any of those questions would be yes.

Let me take your thought experiment a little further. Let’s say that this event actually happens, the Million Mensch March. And we’re there at the steps of the Capital. There are speakers, music, nice drugs…but no cameras. The media doesn’t show up. Will this event have just as much of an impact, or do the cameras have to be there? If you say that the cameras have to be there, then I would ask—why would we think the cameras can solve the problem when it’s the cameras that have actually had a significant role in creating the problem?