Notes on social movement

I was always skeptical about social movement; of all the moments in recent history, I could not recall one which social movement functioned as a major turning point. I do admit that such view is rather extreme, jumping on conclusion, but it seems so true, but however, I do not completely distrust the idea.

Rather, I see social movement as antinomic, unfruitful mass action, which occur after failures of all the other possible alternatives. In uncultured terms, I interpret social movement as "squirming" of people; metaphorically, it is an act of defeated soldiers holding a castle after numerous retreats from invading enemy. Social movement is a "last resort," a final resistance against social phenomena that threaten well-beings of the society. It may fail, and does so in most cases, but its meanings and importance should not be degraded.

In recent decade, "candle light demonstration" became extremely popular in Korean societies. it is peaceful demonstration marked by candle holding demonstrators, and it has been the most popular form of demonstration in Korea for a decade. I remember reading an news article that estimates more than 30% of university students having an experience of attending candle light demonstration.

At first, the popularity of the demonstration was upheld as an icon of Korean democracy. People really believed in it. For a decade people had protested against numerous national cases. However, when I really think about its effectiveness, I am skeptical of the demonstration. candle light demonstration has been the most popular form of social movement in South Korea, but it had never really successfully altered the decisions of the government. The U.S. had gained what they wanted out of FTA deals, Korean version of patriot act was passed, new media law was enacted, and now four major Korean broadcasting stations are ran by people close to the current president. What had countless demonstrations had accomplished was only letting the government know how strongly people are opposed to the current president.

During the lecture, Angela had lectured about how social movement take in place, but I couldn't grasp on requisites of successful social movement. I know what I seek to find may not exist, and even if such exist, it would be different for different situations. I guess what I really seek to find is more cases of successful social movements besides the one by Cesar Chavez. I might be ignorant for saying such, but I think the growth and evolution of social movements have failed to keep up with today's fast-evolving economy and culture.