I admire protesters so much. I think that in the end, almost all of history has happened because of people resisting with their bodies.

But why do protesters always seem to ask for such unreasonable things? Such as in the photo above demanding JUSTICE NOW! A common request at protests.

Practically, justice is a pretty complicated thing to administer: it would more reasonable to ask for JUSTICE BY THE END OF THE WEEK! Or something that might actually be possible: JUSTICE BY THE END OF THIS YEAR!

Seriously, I do think that protests with highly reasonable and pragmatic political demands would be a powerful political weapon. For example, at the beginning of the Iraq war, the protest signs said things such as, NO WAR FOR OIL! At the time, I remember reading that Hans Blix, the UN Weapons Inspector was pleading with Bush for six more months; he said that they weren’t sure that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, but that in six more months they would probably know.

Six more months strikes me as something very reasonable to ask for; something that addresses the argument of people that believed in the war. It seems possible to gain the political traction to delay the war for six more months. Millions of protesters asking for SIX MORE MONTHS might have gotten somewhere, whereas demanding NO WAR was quite the political stretch.

It’s a basic tenant of negotiation: first get something small, to establish a cooperative relationship, then work towards bigger things. Find the common ground first. Rarely in negotiation does demanding the world up front (in a rather strident manner) get one anywhere.

I’d love to see a protest, a big protest, that asked for something politically reasonable, something possible. That just might change the world.