{"id":18712,"date":"2009-10-27T16:47:49","date_gmt":"2009-10-27T21:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=18712"},"modified":"2011-06-03T19:20:31","modified_gmt":"2011-06-03T23:20:31","slug":"i-have-a-plan-for-protesting-the-banks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/daily-astrology\/i-have-a-plan-for-protesting-the-banks\/","title":{"rendered":"I have a plan for protesting the banks"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Planet Waves reader wrote to me and said a guy named Bob Herbert wrote an op-ed in the New York Times<\/strong><\/a> today, calling for people to protest the economic crisis. Modest at first, nothing too outrageous or dangerous. We are polite folk after all and those German shepherds, teargas and fire hoses are such a drag.<\/p>\n

“It can start with just a few small steps,” he wrote. “[Rosa] Parks helped transform a nation by refusing to budge from her seat [on a segregated city bus]. Maybe you want to speak up publicly about an important issue, or host a house party, or perhaps arrange a meeting of soon-to-be dismissed employees, or parents at a troubled school.”<\/p>\n

He continues, “This passivity and sense of helplessness most likely stems from the refusal of so many Americans over the past few decades to acknowledge any sense of personal responsibility for the policies and choices that have led the country into such a dismal state of affairs, and to turn their backs on any real obligation to help others who were struggling.”<\/p>\n

Ok. People are struggling — but the “struggle” version of protest is not exactly happening now. The Yes Men have demonstrated something else — that humor and bringing your body into the satire is the way to go. You do something subtle and work on the level of individual minds.<\/p>\n

Here is my plan. Take a pile of Monopoly money, or if you don’t want to part with that, fake money purchased at the Dollar Store. Make sure it’s goofy looking, so if anyone decides you’re serious, they will look like a fool. <\/em>Don’t let on that you’re kidding.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to your bank, make out a deposit slip for however much it is, you know, tens of thousands of dollars, and attempt to deposit it into your account. Keep a straight face. Don’t break irony. If they won’t take the money, politely ask for the manager.<\/p>\n

Don’t make a fuss; end the event by telling them you will call the bank and try to work it out, and then leave. Don’t say it’s a protest! Just let it be something weird. Imagine the dinner time conversation between bank manager and spouse, “A normal looking person, Mrs. Smith, in fact, came into the bank and tried to deposit all this fake money. I don’t get it.”<\/p>\n

Write back to this page and tell us what happened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Planet Waves reader wrote to me and said a guy named Bob Herbert wrote an op-ed in the New York Times today, calling for people to protest the economic crisis. Modest at first, nothing too outrageous or dangerous. We are polite folk after all and those German shepherds, teargas and fire hoses are such … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18712"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18712\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}