Do mass protests matter anymore? Even when large numbers turn out with a high level of outrage directed at abusive corporate or governmental elites, the Powers That Be usually just hunker down and wait for the fury to pass.
But the one form of protest that really gets to even the most aloof elite is cultural caricature. In recent decades, the creative deployment of giant puppets, satirical songs, pop-up parodies, and other forms of social mockery has pierced the ego shields of haughty corporate chieftains and puffed-up politicos. They ignore angry speeches, but public ridicule stings the them personally, energizing the larger community.
Consider how common household utensils can rally the people’s discontent, rattle the establishment, and deliver a message of revolutionary protest. In recent years, mass rebellions, armed with nothing but kitchenware, have noisily made their points in such disparate places as Chile and Iceland.
And today, the people of France are bedeviling their country’s aristocratic wannabe, President Emmanuel Macron, with a ceaseless, mass clanging of skillets, saucepans, spoons and other plebian cookware brought from their French kitchens into the streets of every region. They are protesting the president’s imperious, decision to undercut their pensions, as well as his tone-deaf refusal even to hear their complaints. So their “voice” has become the incessant banging of pots. Now, Macron can’t go anywhere without being greeted – and often drowned out – by the cacophony of “cassarolades” (the saucepan movement).
The protest is driving Macron crazy, which seems to be a very short ride for him. Clearly irritated by the commoner’s cleverness, his government is now using antiterrorism laws to ban “the use of portable sound devices” in protests.
Of course, the crazier he gets about pots and pans, the more effective their “voice” becomes – and the louder people laugh at their “leader.”
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