Firsly, I very much enjoyed our conversation with Professor Roberts; I hope to take government classes during my Cornell career in order to continue learning about modern democracy and social obligation. We said that social protest is a cyclical process rather than a linear one, where there are periods of unrest and subsequent mobilization followed by periods of demobilization and perhaps general content. During the talk, I began to wonder how effective protest is in the forms it has taken today and in history. We talked about what protest does: it gives a voice to underrepresented groups, it brings unseen issues into the mainstream and thus forces larger political parties to take a side on them, and sometimes impacts public policies. The latter, however, is far from guaranteed. Professor Roberts talked about how movements with large public support might still not provoke institutional response, with the example of the gun control protests that arose after the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School.

I began to wonder how much change protest can really create. I think protest is very effective for bringing unnoticed issues to light. But how long after protest does tangible change occur, as in the issues being resolved? How do we quantify change in this context? i.e., how do we know when change is superficial or performative and when it is actually effective? By effective we usually mean establishing policy reform and new leaders, and perhaps also change in social norms and language. But often, even policy and elections can be surface-level.

2020 was a year for protest, and it certainly got me thinking more about what needs to change in the world, and how that change can be effectuated. The movement this year has changed the conversation and brought new leaders to the forefront, and we have made a great stride by electing a new president. But nothing has been solved yet. A new leader in office brings a lot of hope and maybe some reform, but there are still barriers in place that are embedded in our political and social system–other people in power with alternative agendas pushing back against change. We live in the same system. We’ve maintained a certain way of life and a certain status quo for a very long time, so how long does it take to change that status quo completely? How quickly can that be accomplished, and how forceful must the means be? Are there better ways to realign the agenda or change policy than the ways we’re doing that now? I have many more questions that I can’t perfectly articulate, and I think now that I am very eager to take a class in government or political science to learn more.