Placebo Protests

I was just listening to Token Skeptic #18, and nearly gave myself whiplash with all my nodding in agreement. In my classes, I am known for my opposition to the goal of "raising awareness"; fuzzy, ill-defined concepts like that do more harm than good. Take a page from the success of science, and operationally define the things you wish to change, or it is too easy to either see change where there has been none, or miss real change that has happened while you were off looking at something relatively irrelevant.

Michael McRae (featured on the first half of the podcast) uses the term "placebo protest" to describe a protest which makes the protesters feel good, but which has no measurable effect on the actual problem. To my cynical mind, such protests, along with ribbon pins and magnets, and prayer, are much more about making us feel like we are doing something, than they are about actually doing something. The second half of the podcast features Desiree Schell of Skeptically Speaking, whose experience as an organizer leads her to a very similar view as McRae's (in part; she has considerably more to say, as does McRae--I am focusing on just one part).

Mind you, not everything we do needs to be for a reason, nor should we hesitate to admit it when we do something frivolous for fun (like, say, this blog) without knowing if it has positive, negative, or no effects at all on the problems of society. But when we wish to make a difference, we have tools which we should use.

Should you set off to "raise awareness",

Expect results to be a mess--

I see your good intent, in fairness,

But how will you infer success?

Such actions claim that education

Cures all sort of social ill;

That ignorance is motivation;

Problems come from lack of will:

"If only they could see what we see,

Then they'd surely make a change!"

Seems so simple, seems so easy...

Seems it doesn't work. How strange.

Without a goal that one can measure

Meeting it is hard to do

And though the task may bring you pleasure

That's not the end which we pursue!

Name a target; set your goal

In such a way that, when you're done

You'll know your actions played a role,

And bit by bit, the war is won.

So, go, listen to the podcast. There's more there than what I reacted to, and worth listening to!