Is Protesting A Fundemental Value Of Democracy? (4 Minute Read)

 Hello everyone,

I know I have not written in a while and I would like to say that I probably will not be writing like I used to for some time. I will be trying to write posts like this from time to time though. This is an essay that I wrote about whether or not protesting is a fundamental value of democracy. Enjoy!

I believe that protesting is a fundamental value of democracy. I have many reasons but I will only talk about a few. The first one that I would like to talk about is the "Why" of the situation. There is always a reason why something is happening. Sometimes the reason will be valid but at other times, it is not so valid. Nevertheless, it does not matter whether a reason is valid or not. It still falls under a fundamental value of democracy.

Another thing to be taken into consideration is the "When" of the situation. For example, if people are protesting and asking for Smallpox to be eradicated then it is less valid as Smallpox has already been eradicated. Even if the reason is not very valid it does not mean that we should shut down the protest. The protest is simply them asking for a problem to be solved. We do not need to take action on that protest as the disease has already been eradicated so there is nothing anyone could do anyway.

I would also say that people usually do not do things like ask for eradicated diseases to be eradicated. If someone is protesting, then I would say that if people are worried about something then it is most likely a valid concern. I would probably also like to say that if something is a valid concern then, no matter how uncomfortable it makes you, or how much it goes against something you believe in, you must listen to it and try to implement it.

We do not want another case of another authoritarian government that squashes all protests and everything against them or something that makes them uncomfortable. What I am talking about is something like the French Revolution. The rich did not listen to the poor's pleas for help and instead went on having a good time at the poor's expense. We do not want a repeat of that because of two reasons. First, it was fundamentally wrong and if we are truly in a democracy then it should never happen again. Second, it had a very, very bad ending.

We should also consider the "Who" of the situation as well. By who, I do not mean the person who is protesting but more the number of people who are protesting. When there are more people then that means that the community wants a change to be made and many people agree with them.

This kind of protest should be looked at more seriously for two reasons. The first is that if more people are protesting then the validity of the protest is much more likely to be high as many people agree with this. This is not set in stone but it is usually correct. The second reason is that the more people that agree with the problem that the people are protesting about, the bigger this problem likely is, and you now know what the community is worried about and you can try to solve the problem that they are worried about.

This does not mean that you should shut down a peaceful protest with small numbers simply because it may not have validity and it may not be the most pressing matter. If we start to shut down a peaceful protest like this then we could easily start to shut down peaceful protests and bury ourselves into something that we call "Democracy" where we squash down any ideas that do not agree with our own.

I would like to end with a few words, to sum up this essay. A peaceful protest always has a reason behind it. We should not shut the protest down regardless of the reason. The time that a protest is taking place is a big factor in looking at the validity of the argument. People will usually bring up things that are valid though, and we should never break up a peaceful protest forcefully regardless of the time. We should also listen to worries and concerns, regardless of how uncomfortable they make you. We do not want another case of the French Revolution. Finally, we should think about how many people are protesting. If more people protest that means that it is probably more valid and a concern that more of the community wants to be solved. If a protest is small, however, it does not mean we should break it up. 

Here are my beliefs "We should never break up a peaceful protest forcefully regardless of the reason. If a protest does not hurt others it should never be stopped." 

I hope you enjoyed that. Let me know in the comments below if you would like to see more essays like this. Feel free to give your opinion on this idea. If not please tell me what you would like to see. Please spread the word about this blog. Also, subscribe on the upper left on the home page. Finally, leave a comment and I look forward to writing more and reading your comments.

Thank you,

Until next time,

This is Chaitanya giving you Things To Think About.

Giving you things to think about