The reasons why demonstrations are valuable even if the government ignores them

These days, within the Spanish right, there is some debate about whether the demonstrations are serving any purpose.

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There are opinions for and against, as with everything. Obviously, the government's systematic ignoring of protests makes many wonder if they serve any purpose, but this shouldn't be an argument against the need for demonstrations. The usual thing for a government is to pretend to ignore protests it doesn't control, downplay them (by, for example, engaging in numbers wars over the number of people who participate), or simply insult the protesters, to name just three of the Spanish socialists' usual techniques for discrediting any protest against them.

Perhaps some do not realize it, but the various socialist governments have not only been using these techniques to disqualify any protest against them (something we already saw with Felipe González, with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and now also with Pedro Sánchez), but above all to deactivate them, which is a sign that they are quite bothered by them, even if they pretend otherwise.

Against a corrupt government that abuses its power and behaves like a mafia, the arguments in defense of demonstrations are powerful, and by "demonstrations" I include those held on Sundays before lunch (which tend to attract older people) or those held at night in a more rowdy manner (which tend to attract younger people). It is important that different sectors of society demonstrate, in whatever way seems best to some, even if others do not. The terrible thing with a government like that would be if there were no protests in the streets.

We must remember that protests are held not just to be heard by the government. In fact, what is less common is for the political powers to be impressed by one or more demonstrations. That demonstration has an impact on many more sectors, starting with the rest of the country's population. Let's think for a moment about how many complaints we've seen over the years stating that there were no protests regarding certain issues that seem important to us.

Demonstrations serve to convey ideas and moods to the rest of the citizens, especially to the vast majority who never attend a demonstration but watch the news on television (which remains the preeminent mass media). Large demonstrations always make the news and indicate that something serious is happening, even if the pro-government media try to dismiss them.

For years, demonstrations have served to raise awareness of a problem, even if the government denies it. That's why the left demonstrates constantly and with much less restraint than the right. Furthermore, demonstrations serve to show us that our concerns are shared by many people, which encourages those who participate in them and those who watch from a distance to become aware of our own strength as citizens in a democracy, a political system that is not limited to voting for our representatives once every four years.

On the other hand, demonstrations also reach abroad, transmitting the situation in a country to the international media. Let's think for a moment how often we learn about what's happening in another country simply because we see massive protests there in the media. The same thing is happening in our country: these demonstrations are an opportunity for the government to feel pressured in front of the whole world.

Of course, these arguments don't imply that any demonstration is equally opportune. There are ways of organizing a protest that are more beneficial to the government than to those who oppose it, such as those that use violence or those that exhibit anti-democratic ideas. Obviously, within sensible demonstrations there will be something for everyone, and if a certain event isn't to our liking, then simply don't show up. In any case, if one day, with a government like the one we have in Spain, there are no more protests, on that day we will have lost our democracy, because we will have given the socialist mafia what it most desires from us: our silence in the face of its abuses.

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