Serbian activists toppled a dictator by turning him into a carnival game, proving that mockery can be a powerful weapon against authoritarianism. In Belgrade during the late 1990s, young protesters placed a barrel painted with President Slobodan Milosevic's face on a busy street, offering passersby a baseball bat to "Smash his face for just a dinar" (about two cents).
The story, recounted in Blueprint for Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men, and Other Nonviolent Techniques to Galvanize Communities, Overthrow Dictators, or Simply Change the World by Srdja Popovic, shows how the stunt started slowly but soon drew crowds. "A young man, just a few years younger than us, laughed out loud, searched his pockets, took out a dinar…and with a gigantic swing smashed Milosevic in the face," writes Popovic. "You could hear the solid thud reverberate five blocks in each direction." Soon parents were even encouraging their children to kick the barrel.
The climax came when police arrived and faced an absurd choice: arrest innocent civilians for hitting a barrel or confiscate the barrel itself. They chose the latter, creating an unforgettable image of two officers hauling away the battered container. Photos of the incident made opposition newspaper covers, making the feared police look "like a bunch of comically inept dweebs," according to Popovic.
This creative protest helped launch Otpor, the nonviolent movement that eventually brought down Milosevic's regime. As Popovic explains: "While humor varies from country to country, the need to laugh is universal…funny trumps fearsome anytime." The barrel demonstration showed that when citizens lose their fear through mockery, a dictator's power begins to crumble.
Popovic writes:
Without fail, every time people hear about it they say more or less what my Egyptian friends did when we walked them through Republic Square. "It'll never work back where I'm from." But I remind my new friends that while humor varies from country to country, the need to laugh is universal. I've noticed this as I've traveled to meet with activists around the world. People from Western Sahara or Papua New Guinea may not agree with me on what exactly makes something funny—for more on this check out any German "comedy"—but everyone agrees that funny trumps fearsome anytime. Good activists, like good stand-up comedians, just need to practice their craft.
[Via Slate]
Previously:
• Jasmina Tesanovic: Slobodan Milosevic Died
