Manufactured inconvenience serves nobody.
A notable bit from Glynnis MacNicol in the New York Times, an American in Paris fawning over the more “peaceful” student demonstrations there:
On my bike ride home from République on Saturday, I encountered an impromptu gathering of students singing “La Marseillaise,” the French national anthem. As they passed the intersection, some set down bikes and other objects to block cars and make the trip more difficult for everyone. That’s as it should be, I thought, as I navigated past the makeshift barricades. Against the backdrop of so many destructive forces, none of us, anywhere, should be allowed to proceed easily.
This zany thought tends to reappear in moments of social-justice agitation. MacNicol, and many who justify this worldview, seem to believe that those blocking the roads hold the scales of cosmic justice, that they are so arrestingly correct in their beliefs that they must suspend the normal procedures of civil society, not only to get people’s attention, but because everyone, everywhere, needs to suffer if they aren’t already.
It’s just not fair if a person can get through the day unimpeded, “against the backdrop of so many destructive forces.” Therefore, the thought goes, manufacturing inconvenience and disruption is necessary, even if it does nothing to solve the problems being protested. MacNicol seems proud to have participated in this useless racket, like she’s shouldered a burden that somehow advanced the cause. Others who disagree with the diagnoses and prescriptions of the protesters are ostensibly supposed to do the same.
Importantly, the causes that this behavior thrives on are ever-growing, never solvable. The “destructive forces” that MacNicol cites are the omnicause coalescent. In addition to poorly managed schools, it’s “the climate catastrophe, the terror of artificial intelligence, the faltering economic picture” that rightfully incense demonstrations of fury. It’s the conflict in Gaza, too. Photos of crowds dotted with Palestinian flags abound. These issues are so large and transcendent, and so disputed both on the political left and outside, that it is virtually impossible to find a solution that would be satisfactory to everyone, let alone those most likely to throw bikes in a pile on the street.
Such actions are perpetually vindicated by the omnicause worldview, and everyone else has to take their medicine and shoulder the burden of public disruption.