Why are we seeing more and more protests in the western world?

We are seeing more and more protests in the western world. But why?

I don't have all the answers but I think its stems from a number of things.

First, I think the momentum got under-way as a result of the Arab Spring and Occupy movement. The protests seem to be a result of the continued frustration over the voice of the people being ignored by those in power, coupled with the continued strain on the common people via prohibitive laws or laws that breed inequality. This inequality can be between, class, races, religious practices or even between people and groups like large multinational corporations.

In recent years, we have also seen greater restrictions and management of protests. For example, you now have to get a permit to protest and you are cordoned into specific areas, usually to hide you from view of the people you wish to see your cause. Police create huge strategic plans to manage protests.

The strange thing is that this cordon and control by an outside source is completely contrary to the nature of a protest. A protest is designed to be a regaining of control by the protestees (new word). It is should be the responsibility of the protest groups to organise as best it can to get its point across. The very act of controlling a protest it the first aggressive act against the protest. Even before it hits the ground.

This control causes greater frustration by the protest group which causes them to push their cause even harder.

Secondly, we are are at a stage in our existence on Earth where our natural non-renewable resources are in rapid decline. Those that are in power are grasping for the last scraps and they will do anything to get them, like manipulate and corrupt governments. This is nothing unusual. We have seen resource declines throughout history with similar tragic effects until an alternative is found of the situation implodes.

I don't know if this is avoidable, but we have fostered a culture and political system where those who seek to gain more than others are rewarded. Once they have more they do everything in their power to stop others from gaining more and catching up. Even to the point where they will sacrifice some of their gains to prevent others from moving up. This is the very core of corruption.

This may be an effective tool in the past where you are competing for finite resources for your survival but as we are now forced to see each other less by our small groups and tribes and more as a collective member of Earth this strategy fails.

Communism was our first attempt at collective sharing but it failed to understand the highly and irrationally competitive nature of many people. This quickly led to corruption. Democracy, on the other hand understood that some people are innately corrupt and buffered for it better.

The thing is, Democracy can only buffer for so long until corruption takes hold and if Democracy starts with corruption, it is essentially a loosely hidden dictatorship of the corrupt elite and is destined to fail from the start.

What we are seeing in the Democratic world now is that the buffer has worn through and the corrupt elite are taking hold.

We are now railing against this because we see where this will lead. Thus we protest. The corrupt-elite know what's coming so they militarized the police force. They try and control protest before it even starts. They block and control the media through corporate monopolies and attempt to reign in the free flow of information (net-neutrality). And they seek to pry on our everyday lives (internet surveilance).

We see the inequality rise in our countries and know that we need to stand against it before the corruptions takes hold.

We are now understanding that we are all brothers and sisters of Earth and we seek to take responsibly for our planet and each other but are barred from doing so by the very nature of capitalistic democracy and corrupt quasi-democratic dictatorships.

Global society is in dire need of an audit. A revolution. These protests are the first salvo of this revolution and those corrupted and in power know this and are fearful. It is time for the pendulum to swing in the other direction.

... the alteration of men on a mass scale is, necessary, ... a revolution; this revolution is necessary, therefore, not only because the ruling class cannot be overthrown in any other way, but also because the class overthrowing it can only in a revolution succeed in ridding itself of all the muck of ages and become fitted to found society anew.

Karl Marx

Let's hope we can do it peacefully.