case study #2: free will & protest contagioncclose/docs/intro case study 2 fa13.pdf · case...
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Cabrillo College Claudia Close Introduction to Philosophy – Philo. 4 Fall 2013
Case Study #2: Free Will & Protest Contagion Read the sections from Baron d’Holbach and Jean Paul Sartre in our text and the attached articles from The Knight News, the BBC World News, and NPR also, watch the YouTube Video following the link provided, then answer the following questions. The completed assignment should be three pages long, using 12 pt. fonts and single spacing with one inch margins. Each answer should be proportionate to the number of points possible and each supporting quote should be no longer than one or two short sentences. All quotes must be from primary literature (the philosopher in question) and not from Solomon’s secondary commentary or any other non-primary source. Quotes must be cited and all you need do is indicate the page from the text. Please separate and number each response as shown in the example provided with the first case study. This exercise is worth a total of 105 points. Your completed assignment is due on the 4th (M/W) / 5th (T/Th) of
December. No late case studies will be accepted!
Please refer to the detailed instructions, rubrics and sample completed
assignment provided with the first case study assignment! Questions:
1. Are protests caused primarily by a kind of ‘contagion’ (the result of causal forces acting upon the protesters & not freely chosen – like a virus) or are they better explained as the result of a willing and deliberate choice of the protestors to express their concern over their conditions? Paraphrase the argument offered by the author in the first attached article from The Knight News. (15 points)
2. Prior to determining whether protests are a kind of contagion or result from choices made of the protestors’ own free will, what sort of research information would you need? Provide as a bulleted list and pose in question form. For this assignment, you do not have to do the research but you need to raise the kind of questions that would drive such a project. These should be research questions and as such should be concrete and answerable. No bias or prejudice should be evident and the questions should be non-normative. Think about facts that, if known might help determine how one should or could respond to the issues identified. (20 points)
3. What do you think that d’Holbach would say about how protests arise? Explain your answer including specific details from his theory and from the attached articles. (30 points) 3b. Provide and cite a quote from d’Holbach supporting your answer. (5 points)
4. Do you think that Sartre would refer to protests as a “contagion?” Explain your answer using specific details from Sartre’s theory and from the attached articles. (30 points) 4b. Provide and cite a quote from Sartre supporting your answer. (5 points)
March 27, 2012
‘Protesting Contagion’1
The rapid growth of protest movements around the world was analyzed on March 19 by
professors, academics and researchers in a discussion entitled; “Protest Contagion.”
More than 80 people attended the two-hour event held in the Dining Hall, which focused largely
on the heart of current protest movements taking place in North Africa and the Middle East in
countries like Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Algeria.
Read more about QC protests
The discussion offered insight into past and current happenings but also reflected on the global
impact of changing politics in those regions, examining how changes in one country inspire other
nations. These protests begin to successfully end the repression and government-inflicted
violence resulting from decades of autocratic rule while also having a far-reaching impact
throughout the Arab world.
Panelists analyzed the growth of protest
movements in the Middle East during 'Protest
Contagion' on March 18. Photo Meher Mohsin.
Panelists discussed the role of media in the Middle
East protest movements, the rise in popularity and
influence of Islamist political parties, gender issues
and national identity in the post-revolutionary
period. Andrea Khalil, QC comparative literature
professor and specialist in North African studies,
organized the event.
“Someone always does, and will, write the narrative,” said the keynote speaker, professor
Muhsin Al-Musawi of Columbia University, referring to the start of movements in certain
1 Welcome to The Knight News digital. We aim to serve the Queens College community through a tireless pursuit
for truths that may be hidden, obstructed or otherwise unknown, to empower our readers with the information they
need to inspire change. This student led news organization consists of a team of over 20 reporters, editors,
photographers, and designers. Our print issues are released bi-weekly on school days and can be found on our news
stands around the Queens College campus ( http://www.theknightnews.com/2012/03/27/protesting-
contagion/ )
regions and eventually spreading. In specific, Musawi referred to 26-year-old Tunisian,
Mohammed Bouazizi, who set himself on fire on Dec. 17 to protest his livelihood being
threatened, which in turn sparked the Arab Spring.
Read more about a QC protestor
The term ‘contagion’ means the communication of disease from one person to another by close
contact. The double-meaning of the event’s title implied that protests, which became the Arab
Spring in 2011 and spread like wild fire, evolved into the occupy movement in the west as well
as education and immigration movements in North and South Americas.
Read more about OccupyQC protests
“The people who made the revolution are not the center of politics. It is like that around the
world,” said author Malika Zeghal. “It was the students and workers movement in 1978 which
started the reform of government and revolution in Tunisia.”
The other meaning of the event’s title referred to street protests necessitating direct, human-to-
human contact as a form of communication, which many believe to be the main empowering
drive for protestors.
“As long as you are collectively aware of what you are doing, you are a people,” Zeghal said.
“The moment you lose that, you break into groups and become of the multitudes.”
Read more about QC students protesting local grocery store
The panel, entitled ‘Making a Scene,’ sought to explore the influence of social media and art as a
means of not only spreading protests movements, but of strengthening them as well.
“Creating a scandal in the streets can disrupt certain structures of political and social power,”
said presenter Tarek El-Ariss, an assistant professor of Arabic studies at the University of Texas
at Austin.
El-Ariss cited street graffiti as a growing phenomenon that was very popular in the Egyptian
revolution and continues to be so throughout other regions.
“Technology lets you create a presence in protests beyond the public sphere. It holds huge
potential,” El-Ariss said. “It moves beyond the dichotomy of the Internet and the street by
bringing them both together. There are different paradigms taking place.”
The final panelist, QC student Rabia Souhail, described cyber activism as “reactions and feelings
unedited” – referring to the power of social media tools like Twitter, which was used during the
Egyptian revolution by activists who tweeted, live-streamed videos and posted pictures of every
moment at Tahrir Square.
Defining the future of “people power” around the world that are uniting those with similar
struggles through protests, the panelists said the contagion that spread was not only that of
discontent, but of a thirst for reform.
Read more about a QC occupier
Policing protests: Containment or contagion?
2
By Claudia Allen BBC News
The Turkish Medical
Association and the Council of Europe have criticised the Turkish police's heavy use of tear gas
Turkish protests
In Istanbul it was plans to build on a city centre park.
In Sao Paulo it was an increase in the price of a bus ticket.
2 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22995442
London's Metropolitan Police practised containment or "kettling" at recent protests
In both cases seemingly local issues triggered initial
protests which then spread around the country.
And in both Turkey and Brazil, allegations of police brutality
have seemed to fuel the protesters' ire.
In Turkey, the unrest began on 28 May as a protest against
plans to develop Gezi Park, a rare green space in central
Istanbul.
After riot police used tear gas and water cannon to clear
the park, the demonstrations mushroomed, with thousands
of people protesting in Taksim Square, and solidarity
protests around the country.
The Turkish government later admitted that the violent police response to the initial protests
was an overreaction.
“What you want to avoid is police being the trigger for further unrest,” Roger Gomm Former
Metropolitan Police commander.
Tear gas use
Medical officials now estimate that 5,000 people have been injured and at least four killed since
the protests began in earnest.
The police's use of large quantities of tear gas over the past weeks has drawn sharp criticism
from the Turkish Medical Association, which has warned of the dangers of exposing large
numbers of people to the chemical.
Across Brazil, protests have been taking place for more than a week against corruption,
inefficient public services and high levels of spending on preparations for next year's World Cup.
Anger at police tactics at earlier demonstrations, notably in Sao Paulo a week ago, has given
young people more incentive to protest, according to the BBC's Gary Duffy.
The police have been accused of firing rubber bullets at peaceful protesters, with many officers
allegedly hiding their name-tags to conceal their identities.
Journalists from national news organisations were among those injured, and they said they had
been deliberately targeted.
Both Turkey and Brazil have a quite different style of policing from the more "democratic" British
tradition, according to Roger Gomm, a former public order commander for London's
Metropolitan Police.
Forces in the UK try to use a "community policing" approach to managing protests and put a
high value on communicating and negotiating with demonstrators, he says.
On the beat
The British "bobby" might spend one day walking the beat talking to people and the next
deployed on a public order job, so is more used to communicating with locals than an officer
from a more military-style police agency such as those found abroad, according to Mr Gomm.
"If demonstrators do block an area, there is a balance to be struck between their right to
assemble and express their views, and others' right to go about their daily business."
In 2009 British Tamils occupied Parliament Square in central London, lobbying the British
government to intervene in the Sri Lankan conflict.
At times protesters blocked roads, and communication was sometimes difficult, but despite
these challenges for the police the protest was allowed to continue, and it slowly wound down
over a period of three months.
'STANDING MAN'
A performance artist's silent "standing man" protest in Taksim Square on Monday has been
taken up by hundreds of protesters and spread around the country.
But even this peaceful form of protest can have you arrested in Turkey.
Hurriyet Daily News reports on rumours in Istanbul that standing protesters are told the
prosecutor "will find a reason" for their arrest.
The tactic of containment or "kettling" of protesters has been used extensively by the
Metropolitan Police in recent years, notably at the G20 protests in 2009 and at anti-cuts
demonstrations in 2011.
In a ruling on Tuesday relating to a rally in 2011, High Court judges found that containment was
necessary, but they said being filmed and handing over personal details as "the price of
release" was a step too far.
During the riots in several English cities in August 2011, some commentators called for the
police to use water cannon.
In fact, water cannon have never been used in mainland Britain, though they have been
deployed for unrest in Northern Ireland.
Human rights group Liberty claims that there are measures in use in Britain which undermine
the right to peaceful protest, pointing out anti-terrorism stop-and-search powers and laws on
anti-social behaviour, in particular.
Trigger?
Former commander Roger Gomm says that when protests become violent, the police are duty
bound to act - and then the situation becomes more challenging.
"What you want to avoid is police being the trigger" for further unrest, he adds.
And that is exactly what can happen according to Steve Reicher, a psychology professor at the
University of St Andrews, who says a police clampdown can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
“This is the first generation whose lives, and psychology, have been shaped by ready access to
information technology and social media”
Professor Reicher, an expert in crowd psychology, says the balance of voices within a
heterogeneous crowd is affected by the relationship between the crowd and the police.
Under conditions where the crowd is treated as all the same, and all dangerous, the crowd
changes, he says.
The police actions have given credence to the views held by some in the crowd that they are
living in a society where their opinions aren't listened to.
Similarly, authorities' attempts to "pathologise" crowds as looters and vandals, or as immature,
can backfire, he claims, pointing to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's exhortation
to parents to "take their children in hand".
Right to assembly
The right to peaceful assembly and to expression of views, referred to by Roger Gomm, is set
out in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which Turkey ratified in 1954.
In a statement earlier this week on the
developments in Turkey, the Council of
Europe drew attention to the standards set
by the ECHR on freedom of assembly, and
its limits.
Many protesters on the streets of Turkey and Brazil are internet-savvy
Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland
pointed out that the European Court of
Human Rights had previously ruled that "the use of tear gas in confined places, including
hospitals, is neither necessary nor proportionate" under European law.
Technology is changing protests.
Not only can protesters use smartphones to arrange flash mobs, they can also use them to take
pictures of police.
And those pictures can be sent around the world in a flash.
This makes it harder for authorities to portray protesters as "other" - or to suppress all coverage
of protests - and makes it easier for demonstrators to win the propaganda war.
Latin America
Protests Allow Brazilians To Feel Part Of Global Movement3
Mon June 24, 2013 9:54 am
By Lourdes Garcia-Navarro
Transcript
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Technology really does seem to make the world smaller, and this morning, we'll hear this
morning how that applies to protest movements. Turkey saw a fresh wave of anti-government
demonstrations over the weekend.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And in Brazil, the president is holding an emergency meeting today on how to respond to
protests sweeping that country. An estimated quarter of a million Brazilians were on the streets
yesterday, with a wide range of grievances.
GREENE: As NPR's South America correspondent Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reports, Brazilian
protestors feel they're part of a growing global movement.
LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO, BYLINE: This started as a small protest against a hike in bus
and subway fares. And now it's blossomed into this...
3 http://www.npr.org/2013/06/24/195087206/protests-make-brazilians-feel-part-of-global-movement
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTESTERS)
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Hundreds of thousands of people have come out onto the streets here to
demonstrate against a range of complaints - corruption, lack of services, the cost of World Cup
stadiums. And many people are asking why now?
One of the answers may be protests contagion. Demonstrators in one part of the world are
looking at and are being inspired by movements a world away.
MATTEUS MARTINS: There is a connection. There is a solidarity between the protests,
definitely. The people all over the world, they're learning from each other, they're gaining
strength together, we see different protests around the world supporting the ones in Sao Paulo,
the ones in Turkey.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's Matteus Martins, who has been coming out to the streets in Sao
Paulo. He's 18 years old, educated, connected. In fact, he fits the profile, not just of a protestor
in Brazil, but also a protestor in Turkey, or for that matter, Bulgaria too. And that's no
coincidence, he says.
MARTINS: Most of that is because of the globalization that comes with the Internet - this new
age that we can share everything through social networks and videos online. That's great.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: And since the protests erupted here in Brazil, those connections have only
become tighter. If you go on social media these days, you'll see loads of tweets and posts
between Turks and Brazilians, expressing solidarity, sympathy and exchanging tips.
Nineteen-year-old Luiza Mandetta is part of the Passe Livre or Free Fare Movement. They were
the ones who originally took to the streets and initially played an organizing role in these
protests.
LUIZA MANDETTA: There are lots of people in the world that are not OK with what is
happening with their lives and the way that it has come from politicians to just ignore what we
want and do whatever they are interested in, they do not defend our interests, they defend their
own.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Of course, every country has its own unique set of circumstances that
feeds into a protest movement. But both in Turkey and Brazil, the galvanizing moment came
when police cracked down on the initial demonstrations. The images were played out over
social media, and then people came out in huge numbers, and crucially, the protestors had
already seen what mass demonstrations could do in other places.
Cornelius Fleischhaker is a researcher with the International Monetary Fund who blogs about
Latin America. He's lived in both Turkey and Brazil and says both are strong emerging
economies.
CORNELIUS FLEISCHHAKER: Economically, I think there is a similar dynamic going on - that
you have a fairly young population that's much more educated than it was in previous
generations - that's much more active, that has social media as a tool to communicate and then
mobilize.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: And he says that very prosperity has played a hand in fueling the current
unrest.
FLEISCHHAKER: Once a large part of the population reaches kind of the middle class status,
they demand more, and if the government is not willing or able to provide, that's when people go
on the streets.
MARTINS: Of course, one of the things that have been markedly different is how Turkey's and
Brazil's governments have reacted to the crisis. Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff is a former
leftist activist who was tortured under Brazil's dictatorship.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: In her most recent address, she said she had sympathy with the
protesters and adopted a conciliatory tone. Turkey's leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has taken a
markedly different approach, demonizing the demonstrators and the social media they use.
In a speech this weekend, he also tried to link the movements in both Brazil and Turkey,
implying that there is global conspiracy trying to destabilize both countries. It's the same game,
the same trap, the same aim, he told supporters.
Lourdes Garcia-Navarro NPR News, Sao Paulo. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
YouTube Video: “No, I'm not going to the world cup.”
Carla Dauden
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZApBgNQgKPU