I’m a fan of protest. I think we live in a fairly benign country and are a race of people that are pretty relaxed.

So when we get agitated, things get real.

However. We don’t protest well these days. Back when the Springboks were here in the apartheid era (1981? Was it?) I remember my normally passive family members putting passivity aside and protesting. It was a strange and scary thing.

The anti-TPP protest in Auckland? Silly. Many didn’t know what they were protesting about or for. Some did, for sure, but I suspect they were in the minority. Blocking motorways and disrupting the lives of fellow citizens, to my mind, is somewhat counterproductive.

Throwing a dildo at Joyce? Achieved nothing. She shouldn’t have gotten away with it in my opinion. Kind of a dick move.

But what has inspired this post is the dumping of muck on Gerry Brownlee at a remembrance service. I’m outraged at this. It’s disgraceful. Friends of mine died on that day. It’s disrespectful and again, counterproductive.

I get that people are aggrieved with the current government. I get that the rebuild isn’t going as quickly as some think it should be (my expectation is that it’s a 20 year project actually). If you’re going to protest, and you have an absolute right to, make sure you think through the outcomes properly. You want the masses on your side. Dumb shit like this just pisses people off.