Thursday 15 December 2011

Person of the year: "The protester"

Not that I'd agree with everything in Time magazine's "Person of the Year" article and the various links. But when "The Protester" is person of the year for the US mainstream media, it is an acknowledgement that something significant has shifted.

Of course the Time piece is pretty limited in many ways, despite the Guardian's supportive comments (which kind of miss the point that the mainstream media are as much part of the problem, and a barrier for social movements, as anything else). But such is the lot of the journalist:

ya walk inta the room
with yer pencil in yer hand
ya see somebody naked
and ya say who is that man
ya try so hard
but ya don't understand
just what you're gonna say when ya get home

because something is happening here
but ya don't know what it is
do ya, Mistah Jones?