Cabrillo College Claudia Close Introduction to Philosophy – Philo. 4 Fall 2013

Case Study #2: Free Will & Protest Contagion Read the sections from Baron d’Holbach and Jean Paul Sartre in our text and the attached articles from The Knight News, the BBC World News, and NPR also, watch the YouTube Video following the link provided, then answer the following questions. The completed assignment should be three pages long, using 12 pt. fonts and single spacing with one inch margins. Each answer should be proportionate to the number of points possible and each supporting quote should be no longer than one or two short sentences. All quotes must be from primary literature (the philosopher in question) and not from Solomon’s secondary commentary or any other non-primary source. Quotes must be cited and all you need do is indicate the page from the text. Please separate and number each response as shown in the example provided with the first case study. This exercise is worth a total of 105 points. Your completed assignment is due on the 4th (M/W) / 5th (T/Th) of

December. No late case studies will be accepted!

Please refer to the detailed instructions, rubrics and sample completed

assignment provided with the first case study assignment! Questions:

1. Are protests caused primarily by a kind of ‘contagion’ (the result of causal forces acting upon the protesters & not freely chosen – like a virus) or are they better explained as the result of a willing and deliberate choice of the protestors to express their concern over their conditions? Paraphrase the argument offered by the author in the first attached article from The Knight News. (15 points)

2. Prior to determining whether protests are a kind of contagion or result from choices made of the protestors’ own free will, what sort of research information would you need? Provide as a bulleted list and pose in question form. For this assignment, you do not have to do the research but you need to raise the kind of questions that would drive such a project. These should be research questions and as such should be concrete and answerable. No bias or prejudice should be evident and the questions should be non-normative. Think about facts that, if known might help determine how one should or could respond to the issues identified. (20 points)

3. What do you think that d’Holbach would say about how protests arise? Explain your answer including specific details from his theory and from the attached articles. (30 points) 3b. Provide and cite a quote from d’Holbach supporting your answer. (5 points)

4. Do you think that Sartre would refer to protests as a “contagion?” Explain your answer using specific details from Sartre’s theory and from the attached articles. (30 points) 4b. Provide and cite a quote from Sartre supporting your answer. (5 points)

March 27, 2012

‘Protesting Contagion’1

The rapid growth of protest movements around the world was analyzed on March 19 by

professors, academics and researchers in a discussion entitled; “Protest Contagion.”

More than 80 people attended the two-hour event held in the Dining Hall, which focused largely

on the heart of current protest movements taking place in North Africa and the Middle East in

countries like Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Algeria.

Read more about QC protests

The discussion offered insight into past and current happenings but also reflected on the global

impact of changing politics in those regions, examining how changes in one country inspire other

nations. These protests begin to successfully end the repression and government-inflicted

violence resulting from decades of autocratic rule while also having a far-reaching impact

throughout the Arab world.

Panelists analyzed the growth of protest

movements in the Middle East during 'Protest

Contagion' on March 18. Photo Meher Mohsin.

Panelists discussed the role of media in the Middle

East protest movements, the rise in popularity and

influence of Islamist political parties, gender issues

and national identity in the post-revolutionary

period. Andrea Khalil, QC comparative literature

professor and specialist in North African studies,

organized the event.

“Someone always does, and will, write the narrative,” said the keynote speaker, professor

Muhsin Al-Musawi of Columbia University, referring to the start of movements in certain

1 Welcome to The Knight News digital. We aim to serve the Queens College community through a tireless pursuit

for truths that may be hidden, obstructed or otherwise unknown, to empower our readers with the information they

need to inspire change. This student led news organization consists of a team of over 20 reporters, editors,

photographers, and designers. Our print issues are released bi-weekly on school days and can be found on our news

stands around the Queens College campus ( http://www.theknightnews.com/2012/03/27/protesting-

contagion/ )

regions and eventually spreading. In specific, Musawi referred to 26-year-old Tunisian,

Mohammed Bouazizi, who set himself on fire on Dec. 17 to protest his livelihood being

threatened, which in turn sparked the Arab Spring.

Read more about a QC protestor

The term ‘contagion’ means the communication of disease from one person to another by close

contact. The double-meaning of the event’s title implied that protests, which became the Arab

Spring in 2011 and spread like wild fire, evolved into the occupy movement in the west as well

as education and immigration movements in North and South Americas.

Read more about OccupyQC protests

“The people who made the revolution are not the center of politics. It is like that around the

world,” said author Malika Zeghal. “It was the students and workers movement in 1978 which

started the reform of government and revolution in Tunisia.”

The other meaning of the event’s title referred to street protests necessitating direct, human-to-

human contact as a form of communication, which many believe to be the main empowering

drive for protestors.

“As long as you are collectively aware of what you are doing, you are a people,” Zeghal said.

“The moment you lose that, you break into groups and become of the multitudes.”

Read more about QC students protesting local grocery store

The panel, entitled ‘Making a Scene,’ sought to explore the influence of social media and art as a

means of not only spreading protests movements, but of strengthening them as well.

“Creating a scandal in the streets can disrupt certain structures of political and social power,”

said presenter Tarek El-Ariss, an assistant professor of Arabic studies at the University of Texas

at Austin.

El-Ariss cited street graffiti as a growing phenomenon that was very popular in the Egyptian

revolution and continues to be so throughout other regions.

“Technology lets you create a presence in protests beyond the public sphere. It holds huge

potential,” El-Ariss said. “It moves beyond the dichotomy of the Internet and the street by

bringing them both together. There are different paradigms taking place.”

The final panelist, QC student Rabia Souhail, described cyber activism as “reactions and feelings

unedited” – referring to the power of social media tools like Twitter, which was used during the

Egyptian revolution by activists who tweeted, live-streamed videos and posted pictures of every

moment at Tahrir Square.

Defining the future of “people power” around the world that are uniting those with similar

struggles through protests, the panelists said the contagion that spread was not only that of

discontent, but of a thirst for reform.

Read more about a QC occupier

Policing protests: Containment or contagion?

2

By Claudia Allen BBC News

The Turkish Medical

Association and the Council of Europe have criticised the Turkish police's heavy use of tear gas

Turkish protests

In Istanbul it was plans to build on a city centre park.

In Sao Paulo it was an increase in the price of a bus ticket.

2 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22995442

London's Metropolitan Police practised containment or "kettling" at recent protests

In both cases seemingly local issues triggered initial

protests which then spread around the country.

And in both Turkey and Brazil, allegations of police brutality

have seemed to fuel the protesters' ire.

In Turkey, the unrest began on 28 May as a protest against

plans to develop Gezi Park, a rare green space in central

Istanbul.

After riot police used tear gas and water cannon to clear

the park, the demonstrations mushroomed, with thousands

of people protesting in Taksim Square, and solidarity

protests around the country.

The Turkish government later admitted that the violent police response to the initial protests

was an overreaction.

“What you want to avoid is police being the trigger for further unrest,” Roger Gomm Former

Metropolitan Police commander.

Tear gas use

Medical officials now estimate that 5,000 people have been injured and at least four killed since

the protests began in earnest.

The police's use of large quantities of tear gas over the past weeks has drawn sharp criticism

from the Turkish Medical Association, which has warned of the dangers of exposing large

numbers of people to the chemical.

Across Brazil, protests have been taking place for more than a week against corruption,

inefficient public services and high levels of spending on preparations for next year's World Cup.

Anger at police tactics at earlier demonstrations, notably in Sao Paulo a week ago, has given

young people more incentive to protest, according to the BBC's Gary Duffy.

The police have been accused of firing rubber bullets at peaceful protesters, with many officers

allegedly hiding their name-tags to conceal their identities.

Journalists from national news organisations were among those injured, and they said they had

been deliberately targeted.

Both Turkey and Brazil have a quite different style of policing from the more "democratic" British

tradition, according to Roger Gomm, a former public order commander for London's

Metropolitan Police.

Forces in the UK try to use a "community policing" approach to managing protests and put a

high value on communicating and negotiating with demonstrators, he says.

On the beat

The British "bobby" might spend one day walking the beat talking to people and the next

deployed on a public order job, so is more used to communicating with locals than an officer

from a more military-style police agency such as those found abroad, according to Mr Gomm.

"If demonstrators do block an area, there is a balance to be struck between their right to

assemble and express their views, and others' right to go about their daily business."

In 2009 British Tamils occupied Parliament Square in central London, lobbying the British

government to intervene in the Sri Lankan conflict.

At times protesters blocked roads, and communication was sometimes difficult, but despite

these challenges for the police the protest was allowed to continue, and it slowly wound down

over a period of three months.

'STANDING MAN'

A performance artist's silent "standing man" protest in Taksim Square on Monday has been

taken up by hundreds of protesters and spread around the country.

But even this peaceful form of protest can have you arrested in Turkey.

Hurriyet Daily News reports on rumours in Istanbul that standing protesters are told the

prosecutor "will find a reason" for their arrest.

The tactic of containment or "kettling" of protesters has been used extensively by the

Metropolitan Police in recent years, notably at the G20 protests in 2009 and at anti-cuts

demonstrations in 2011.

In a ruling on Tuesday relating to a rally in 2011, High Court judges found that containment was

necessary, but they said being filmed and handing over personal details as "the price of

release" was a step too far.

During the riots in several English cities in August 2011, some commentators called for the

police to use water cannon.

In fact, water cannon have never been used in mainland Britain, though they have been

deployed for unrest in Northern Ireland.

Human rights group Liberty claims that there are measures in use in Britain which undermine

the right to peaceful protest, pointing out anti-terrorism stop-and-search powers and laws on

anti-social behaviour, in particular.

Trigger?

Former commander Roger Gomm says that when protests become violent, the police are duty

bound to act - and then the situation becomes more challenging.

"What you want to avoid is police being the trigger" for further unrest, he adds.

And that is exactly what can happen according to Steve Reicher, a psychology professor at the

University of St Andrews, who says a police clampdown can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“This is the first generation whose lives, and psychology, have been shaped by ready access to

information technology and social media”

Professor Reicher, an expert in crowd psychology, says the balance of voices within a

heterogeneous crowd is affected by the relationship between the crowd and the police.

Under conditions where the crowd is treated as all the same, and all dangerous, the crowd

changes, he says.

The police actions have given credence to the views held by some in the crowd that they are

living in a society where their opinions aren't listened to.

Similarly, authorities' attempts to "pathologise" crowds as looters and vandals, or as immature,

can backfire, he claims, pointing to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's exhortation

to parents to "take their children in hand".

Right to assembly

The right to peaceful assembly and to expression of views, referred to by Roger Gomm, is set

out in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which Turkey ratified in 1954.

In a statement earlier this week on the

developments in Turkey, the Council of

Europe drew attention to the standards set

by the ECHR on freedom of assembly, and

its limits.

Many protesters on the streets of Turkey and Brazil are internet-savvy

Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland

pointed out that the European Court of

Human Rights had previously ruled that "the use of tear gas in confined places, including

hospitals, is neither necessary nor proportionate" under European law.

Technology is changing protests.

Not only can protesters use smartphones to arrange flash mobs, they can also use them to take

pictures of police.

And those pictures can be sent around the world in a flash.

This makes it harder for authorities to portray protesters as "other" - or to suppress all coverage

of protests - and makes it easier for demonstrators to win the propaganda war.

Latin America

Protests Allow Brazilians To Feel Part Of Global Movement3

Mon June 24, 2013 9:54 am

By Lourdes Garcia-Navarro

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Technology really does seem to make the world smaller, and this morning, we'll hear this

morning how that applies to protest movements. Turkey saw a fresh wave of anti-government

demonstrations over the weekend.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And in Brazil, the president is holding an emergency meeting today on how to respond to

protests sweeping that country. An estimated quarter of a million Brazilians were on the streets

yesterday, with a wide range of grievances.

GREENE: As NPR's South America correspondent Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reports, Brazilian

protestors feel they're part of a growing global movement.

LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO, BYLINE: This started as a small protest against a hike in bus

and subway fares. And now it's blossomed into this...

3 http://www.npr.org/2013/06/24/195087206/protests-make-brazilians-feel-part-of-global-movement

(SOUNDBITE OF PROTESTERS)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Hundreds of thousands of people have come out onto the streets here to

demonstrate against a range of complaints - corruption, lack of services, the cost of World Cup

stadiums. And many people are asking why now?

One of the answers may be protests contagion. Demonstrators in one part of the world are

looking at and are being inspired by movements a world away.

MATTEUS MARTINS: There is a connection. There is a solidarity between the protests,

definitely. The people all over the world, they're learning from each other, they're gaining

strength together, we see different protests around the world supporting the ones in Sao Paulo,

the ones in Turkey.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's Matteus Martins, who has been coming out to the streets in Sao

Paulo. He's 18 years old, educated, connected. In fact, he fits the profile, not just of a protestor

in Brazil, but also a protestor in Turkey, or for that matter, Bulgaria too. And that's no

coincidence, he says.

MARTINS: Most of that is because of the globalization that comes with the Internet - this new

age that we can share everything through social networks and videos online. That's great.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: And since the protests erupted here in Brazil, those connections have only

become tighter. If you go on social media these days, you'll see loads of tweets and posts

between Turks and Brazilians, expressing solidarity, sympathy and exchanging tips.

Nineteen-year-old Luiza Mandetta is part of the Passe Livre or Free Fare Movement. They were

the ones who originally took to the streets and initially played an organizing role in these

protests.

LUIZA MANDETTA: There are lots of people in the world that are not OK with what is

happening with their lives and the way that it has come from politicians to just ignore what we

want and do whatever they are interested in, they do not defend our interests, they defend their

own.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Of course, every country has its own unique set of circumstances that

feeds into a protest movement. But both in Turkey and Brazil, the galvanizing moment came

when police cracked down on the initial demonstrations. The images were played out over

social media, and then people came out in huge numbers, and crucially, the protestors had

already seen what mass demonstrations could do in other places.

Cornelius Fleischhaker is a researcher with the International Monetary Fund who blogs about

Latin America. He's lived in both Turkey and Brazil and says both are strong emerging

economies.

CORNELIUS FLEISCHHAKER: Economically, I think there is a similar dynamic going on - that

you have a fairly young population that's much more educated than it was in previous

generations - that's much more active, that has social media as a tool to communicate and then

mobilize.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: And he says that very prosperity has played a hand in fueling the current

unrest.

FLEISCHHAKER: Once a large part of the population reaches kind of the middle class status,

they demand more, and if the government is not willing or able to provide, that's when people go

on the streets.

MARTINS: Of course, one of the things that have been markedly different is how Turkey's and

Brazil's governments have reacted to the crisis. Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff is a former

leftist activist who was tortured under Brazil's dictatorship.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: In her most recent address, she said she had sympathy with the

protesters and adopted a conciliatory tone. Turkey's leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has taken a

markedly different approach, demonizing the demonstrators and the social media they use.

In a speech this weekend, he also tried to link the movements in both Brazil and Turkey,

implying that there is global conspiracy trying to destabilize both countries. It's the same game,

the same trap, the same aim, he told supporters.

Lourdes Garcia-Navarro NPR News, Sao Paulo. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

YouTube Video: “No, I'm not going to the world cup.”

Carla Dauden

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZApBgNQgKPU