The Circus Comes to Town

It’s that time of year again! The annual IMF-World Bank meetings are this weekend which means DC is opening up its doors and turning on its security cameras for the annual wave of protestors.

But these protests are definitely proving the law of diminishing returns. Once a raucous, keep-the-children inside and put on the gasmasks kind of weekend—it’s now mainly a small gathering of inordinately white, college-aged, stylishly dirty kids who spend a lot of time sitting around playing guitars and looking, well, like they’re sixties re-enactors. It’s almost more of a cultural festival than a protest.

They’d be harmless if it wasn’t for their incredibly misguided beliefs, rife with deep misunderstandings of world economics and human nature. What appeals to these young radicals is the promise of ending world poverty and stopping the world’s oppressors. But their talk of minimizing capitalism, erasing classes and tearing down the powerful to pull up the weak is all just Marxism in a new, more culturally sensitive package.

And we know how well Marxist theories work when applied to real people in real countries. Fortunately, these young radicals seem to be a waning breed. Lets hope that trend continues.