My Thoughts on San Francisco’s “Flash Mob”
San Francisco has been a draw for me. It’s clean air, beautiful landscape, convenient location to both surf and snow and the technology industry all equal a desirable place to live & work for someone in their 20s that is interested in technology. Another aspect of this city is that it’s very similar to a college town because the culmination of young people who, for the most part, are what some would consider “hippies” has equaled a great deal of fun events in the city.
There are big wheel races, pie fights, pillow fights, zombie and santas running the streets and some more subdued events like the “Snuggies Pub Crawl” where dozens of people wearing the popular Snuggies will go bar to bar just for the hell of it. What fun! All of these events get people out of their cliques and away from the computer to make new friends and do something difference. San Francisco isn’t a huge city and we have a pretty pitiful zoo and no amusement parks for miles so micro events among friends is great.
Today there was an article in the San Francisco Chronicle highlighting the recent February 14th pillowfight in San Francisco. At least 2,000 people showed up to fight with pillows and the city claims that the event cost them 30 thousand bucks. That makes total sense and I think there are some ways to approach events like this in the future and I have some thoughts about San Francisco having lived here for nearly a year.
First of all, I’ve seen SF citizens stand up for a lot of things. I’ve seen demonstrations and a few near riots. I’ve seen protests, flash mobs and citizens up against just and just plain weird things. Of course, there is this thing I do have a problem with and it’s inherent in human nature but a lot of vocal activism in San Francisco is one sided and always to the extreme.
The protest to keep an American Apparel store from being put in The Mission went too far in my opinion. There was a riot about police brutality that shut down traffic on Market and there was a demonstration nearly every day during the Mumbai Bombings which I agree with the demonstrations but I hated that these demonstrations shut down market street and kept thousands of people from getting to work and I’m better a few people may have even lost their jobs for being 2 hours late to work.
Other demonstrations like the gay marriage demonstrations always took place in the evenings or on weekends so we can demonstrate without interfering with others and some of these flash mob things are great but I have a few points to make regarding these.
We protest against a lot of things but during the pillow fight when 2,000 pillows of feathers went into the air, clogged sewers, destroyed property and made a mess of downtown, where were the protesters then? When the pie fight covered shaving cream all over Powell & Market, where were protesters against “shaving cream” and their harmful chemicals? There is an organization for everything and there is an organization for everything these days and always something worth rioting but I feel that psychologically, we all want to be a part of something.
Two people pillow fighting in Union Square is just weird and stupid but make it 1,000 and now it’s cool! When someone says, “KFC treats chickens inhumane” and protests it, they’re just a crazed liberal who has a day off but when you make a website and 10,000 people join in, now it’s a movement. There’s always something to protest but I see people choosing some things appropriately and other things just not being thought out.
San Francisco is very vain in how it riots and protests and demonstrates against things yet on the other end, these same people are doing things that aren’t appropriate and actually harm the environment. I don’t know why we can’t just live and give back. A quote from someone on Twitter the other days says, “This is why I avoid the tenderloin and you should too.” and then he links to a shooting that just happened near where my old apartment was. Why avoid it? Why don’t we go there more often to get a taste of reality and to give back a little? I went there this morning, dropped off 4 bags of clothes at a shelter and a $250 check to help out. It’s not a lot but it’s something but I would never “avoid” the bad neighborhoods, I embrace them.
Instead of protesting saturated fat, Feds raiding “medical marijuana” clinics and putting up a clothing store in the mission; why don’t we protest how the city isn’t actually doing anything about the drug problem in this city or how the homeless aren’t being helped like they could be. Let’s use those hours at the pillow fight and go work at a shelter giving out food. I have and you can too! I’m proud to be a part of this city and as I my salary goes up every year, I’m going to give more and more money and time back. That’s how it should be and as a nation we can be better. Not be better persons or better companies or better as a government but as a nation.
That’s my message with this. Pillow Fights are great but clean up after yourself, demonstrations are fine but be fair to others and pick your battles wisely. People won’t respect you if you’re protesting the abuse of seagulls in the Wharf and the next day fighting for gay marriage. Choose wisely and be true to yourself and people will listen but right now these demonstrations are just a bunch of toddlers looking for the better pacifier.
