Mike's Minute: Has protest lost it's impact?

Our default to futility worries me.

It's the same sort of thing as the "No Kings" march over the weekend in America.

What actually is the point of waving placards, or in the "burn the bill" case, lighting fires on beaches?

The bill they want to burn is the Marine and Coastal Area Amendment bill.

The amendment part is the bit where it is being returned to what it was a few years back.

It got messed with in court, given the courts are increasingly interventionist, and all that is happening is the law is being returned to what it was.

And what it was is, have you had ongoing access to the bit of water or coastline since the 1800's? If you haven't, you might not have an argument.

It is of course all angsty because it's race-based. David Seymour calls the lighting of fires on the beach "unenlightened" and "anti-intellectual". He is a mixture of right and, I suspect, slightly antagonistic.

But here is my question - to what point? To what end?

I get that there are those who are exercised and don’t like it, fair enough. But guess what? Lighting a fire at a beach isn't going to change it.

The petition, because they had one of those too, had 20,000 signatures. That’s not even a big petition.

76,000 signed one to stop me hosting the election debates on TV in 2017. If 76,000 doesn’t stop a TV host then 20,000 doesn’t stop a law.

Trump won the election in America easily. He is doing nothing he said he wouldn’t do. It's as mad and unhinged as his biggest critic feared, but he is doing it because he has the support of enough people to do it.

The same way this Government is amending a law because they said they would and they won the election.

We must always retain the right to protest, unless its over the Auckland Harbour Bridge. But that’s about geographics, not rights.

But protest loses, and has lost, a lot of its impact because it's become a habit. It’s a default. It’s the pastime of the bored and obsessed.

It's become a cottage industry. If we put the same energy into productive outcomes then this country could be amazing.

So you lit a fire on a beach last night - how did that work out for you?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Default too. Futility worries me at the moment. I mean
the same sort of thing. I think about this over
the weekend, you know, the No Kings march in America.
I mean, what actually is the point? Think about it
and tomorrow is going to be another one. What actually
is the point of waving placards or in the boom?
The bill case lighting fires on beaches. The bill they
want to burn, as we've just been discussing, is the

(00:20):
Marine and Coastalaria Amendment Bill. The amendment part is the
bit where it's being returned to what it was. It
got messed up with court, as you've just heard Paul explain,
Given the courts are increasingly interventionists and all that's happening
in the law, it's being returned to what it was.
And what it was is have you had ongoing access
to the bit of water or coastline since the eighteen hundreds,
and if you haven't, you might not have an argument.
That's it. It is, of course all angsty because it's

(00:41):
all race based. David Seymour and yesterday called the lighting
of fires on the beach unenlightened and anti intellectual, and
I thought he's probably a mixture of being right and
I suspect slightly antagonistic. But here's my question, to what point,
to what end? I mean, I get it. There are
those who are exercised and don't like it. That fair enough,
But guess what Lighting a fire at a beach isn't

(01:03):
going to change it. Clearly, are the petition they had
one of those two twenty thousand signatures. It's not even
a big petition. Seventy six thousand people signed one to
stop me hosting the election debates on television back in
twenty seventeen. If seventy six thousand doesn't stop a television host,
twenty thousand doesn't stop a law. Clearly, Trump won the
election in America easily. He's doing nothing he said he

(01:24):
wouldn't do. Now, yes, it's mad and unhinged if you
don't like him, but he's doing it because he's got
the support of enough people to do it. The same
way this government is amending law because they said they
would and they won the election. We must always, of course,
retain the right to protest, unless it's actually over the
Auckland Harbor Bridge. I hate that, but that's about geographics,

(01:44):
not right. But protest I think losers has lost a
lot of its impact because it's become a habit. It's
a default, it's the pastime of the board and the obsessed.
It's become a cottage industry. If we put the same
energy into productive outcomes, this country could be amazing. O.
You lit a fire on the beach last night. How'd
that work out for you? For more from The Mic

(02:05):
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