“That brings me to the second mode of civil disobedience. There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop.” – Mario Savio

No doubt you have seen or heard about protests breaking out at college campuses all over the country throughout the last several weeks.

This column’s leadoff quote comes from an activist at a sit-in of Sproul Hall at the University of California, Berkley. It sounds like a quote from 2024, but Savio uttered these words as part of a protest of the university’s policies on freedom of expression and political activities back in 1964.

While some may find the current protests involving this installment of the never-ending Israeli-Palestinian conflict to be strong evidence of the collapse of Western civilization, it really is nothing new.

In fact, several of the protest tactics used in the last few weeks directly connect back to Savio’s Free Speech Movement. This is an example of what makes history so interesting and so vital to understand.

The goal of most protests is to demonstrate oppression by a ruling authority.

The 1964 Berkley protest was against rules made by the university’s administration. Protests later in the 1960s and 1970s were against the federal government drafting and sending troops to fight and die in a foreign conflict in Vietnam.

Civil rights protests from the 1950s to the present were against structural racism in laws and customs throughout American society. All these protest movements could point toward actual incidents involving Americans facing adverse conditions coming from a powerful authority.

The current pro-Palestine protests are finding it difficult to gain that kind of traction for a couple of reasons. The first is this is a conflict between two groups in a foreign land who both have a history of being oppressed. Jewish people have faced discrimination all over the world going way back in world history.

Muslim Palestinians have never truly been able to achieve their independence from outside forces. They have lived for centuries under the control of various foreign empires, both Muslim and non-Muslim, and have lived under a Jewish state since shortly after World War II.

Some student protestors have tried to draw parallels between the oppression of Palestinians and the supposed oppressive tactics used by their colleges and law enforcement to clear protest zones after officials have ordered protestors to disperse.

This has mostly backfired as many Americans view these students as coddled products of elite academic institutions on which the vast majority of Americans will never even set foot, much less receive education.

This view was personified by a young protestor last week. The country collectively giggled when this protestor demanded Columbia University provide food and water to protestors who took over a building on campus when nothing was preventing them from walking out of the building they occupied to eat at the nearest campus dining hall.

Secondly, the demands of the protestors are difficult to achieve and understand. Most of the protests are asking their colleges to sever any financial attachments with companies who support the Israeli government.

Not only is this difficult to do – with endowments and donations coming from private citizens and alumni in addition to trying to define exactly how closely associated with Israel a company has to be – it is unlikely college divestment would hasten any resolution in the conflict.

Protesting the federal government seems like the more logical approach here if the goal is to bring about a ceasefire and to gain recognition of a Palestinian country. The government is the institution with the means to have an effect on those conditions.

Not having their universities associated with Israel may make the student protestors feel as if they have achieved some kind of moral superiority, but it accomplishes nothing in a practical sense.

If the point of the protests is some kind of long-term goal of removing Jewish influence from the country’s most prestigious colleges, that seems like a risky game to play. Jewish alumni who have deep pocketbooks may decide to move their money and their children to other colleges.

One thing on which college administrators likely can agree is the end of the spring semester cannot get here soon enough. Maybe their students can stage their sit-ins back in their parents’ houses this summer.