Assemblage

"It is easy for us to look at the diminishing of our common space to assemble and protest as a minor inconvenience; we are overcommitted and protesting doesn't sound like much fun anyway, and, hey, in the Internet era, isn't it beside the point? Can't I do just as well staying safely in my study, clicking a mouse?


No, we cannot do just as well staying in our private rooms and going online; that is how private space becomes the isolation of citizens and in turn eventually becomes a comfortable personal cage. At times we must amass ourselves; this action is not expendable. Its benefit to us is not just stylistic or a matter of nostalgia. Mass disruptive protest is history's time-honored tactic against the suppression of citizens' rights; the assembling of citizens in defiance of wrongdoing also feeds a psychological space that we need to fill if we are to live truly as free men and women. Amassing in the thousands helps us to grasp the power we have unleashed. It heartens us. Because the founders meant for you to be sovereign and to have your own nonviolent but disruptive army; and we are supposed to be your army".

--Naomi Wolf, "Give Me Liberty: A Handbook For American Revolutionaries", pages 118-119