Tax Day Tea Party Protests

Today I woke up, ate some pancakes, took a Biostatistics exam, and then attended the Chicago Tax Day Tea Party. This was the first rally/protest that I have ever attended and was suprised at a few things...

I heard about this rally from the internet and came prepared with 100 copies of the ARI flyer that they recommended handing out. I didn't care too much for the flyer that The Objectivist Standard had available...I'll go into that in a later post. Here are my observations:

1) People are incredibly polite and willing to accept flyers that you hand out at protests. I went with 100 and expected to see 80 lying on the ground after the rally. I saw none and everyone seemed happy to take them...Go Ayn Rand.

2) The folks at ARI are correct: the tea party protests are incredibly hodge-podge. Although well intentioned, there was a random showing of banners that was only stumped by the wide range of topics covered by the speakers. The common threads seemed to be that the people don't want the government to spend more money because they don't want to pay it back later. Out of the 6 or so speakers that I listened to, there was only one or two that really hit home with objectivist principles. It should be noted that these speeches seemed to get the loudest applause from the crowd, which is encouraging. Other speakers included an ex-democrat who was trying to get support to audit the heads of companies "responsible" for the financial collapse (I guess as they did post-Great Depression), a DJ (who, I assume, was in for comedic relief) that kept saying "I love this country and I love my God", and another ex-democrat who proposed the solution of public audits of the Federal Reserve to track government spending.

While this smattering of topics and solutions seemed to get some applause, it might seem pessimistic for objectivists that they were even covered; however, I was able to find the positive in the day...
-There were a lot of signs with Ayn Rand or John Galt on them (about 20%).
-The modern ability for grassroots protesting was impressive. This protest was only put on with the use of the internet and volunteers with very little mass media coverage (as far as I can tell).
-As I mentioned before, the crowd seemed to get more enthusiastic with the objectivist speakers. This shows me that there is a ready and willing population to listen to the ideas that need to be heard. If Rand was hoping for a change in moral philosophy, there is an audience available. This should serve as a call to arms for Objectivists to reach out to these protesters and plant the neccessary seeds. Yaron, Onkar, Keith, others at ARI: become speakers at these protests and get stuff done!!

3) On a personal note: I always thought of myself as never buying into mob mentality and it was enforced more today. I didn't do a single chant, text a single message (apparently it's the way to protest nowadays...they wanted us to do it 4 or 5 times), nor sing any songs. The good speakers deserved cheer but everything else just seemed wierd.

4) A high point during the protest happened when I was passing out flyers and a young man stopped me and asked if I was a fellow objectivist. I said "yeah" and after introductions he asked if I was with a student group or other organization. I told him that I was "Just a one man show, spreading ideas". He was suprised and moved that I was going to so much effort on my own; I gave him half of the flyers that I had left and told him to head in the other direction in the crowd. I expect to meet him in the crowd at the next rally doing the same.