First Rule of Boycotts: Feasibility

2009-06-24

Elaine Chow at Shanghaiist reports on Ai Weiwei's call for an Internet boycott to protest the government's mandate that all PCs be sold with Green Dam Net filtering software:

On micro-blogging website Twitter, Ai called for the low-key protests to mark a day that is also the anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party. "Stop any online activities, including working, reading, chatting, blogging, gaming and mailing," he wrote in the Chinese-language post. "Don't explain your behaviour."

The plan is attractive, I suppose, in that it would be relatively easy to evaluate success. On the other hand, who the hell is going to stop using the Intertubes to do all those things listed above?

This is nuts. Personally, and if I was so inclined to join in protests (I'm too lazy), I would be more likely to fast for 24 hours than abjure from Net activities for a whole day.

I recall the half-assed little "protests" organized by the idealistic, guilt-ridden rich kids I went to college with. Even they understood this concept of feasibility; when they wanted high participation for a pro-gay rights day, for example, they called for all supporters to show up for class wearing blue jeans. This was a hell of a lot more intelligent than a Net boycott. Maybe next week, we can all hold our breath for 72 hours to protest air pollution.

By the way, someone needs to filter out some of these Elaine Chow posts at Shanghaiist. These Japanesy softcore cartoons are quite distracting, and my wife doesn't believe me when I tell her I'm just gathering information for my blog.

Tags: China News