Emotions of Protest

Abstract

Politics — and especially politics of protest — is full of emotions. People are angry about austerity measures, thrilled or fearful about the Arab Spring and indignant because they want real democracy now!¹ Clearly, there is an emotional side to how people react to their social and political environment (Conover and Feldman, 1986; Lyman, 2004; Marcus, 2003; Marcus et al., 2000; Way and Masters, 1996). Politics of protest are imbued with emotions. In fact, protest is inconceivable without emotions. It is emotions which ‘give ideas, ideologies, identities and even interests their power to motivate’ (Jasper, 1997, p. 127). Social movements are carriers of meaning and organizers do their utmost to create moral outrage and to provide a target against which this can be vented. They must weave together a moral, cognitive and emotional package of attitudes. Organizers appeal to ‘attack emotions’ such as anger to create ‘fire in the belly and iron in the soul’ (Gamson, 1992, p. 32). However, ‘just’ being angry is not enough, as Martin Luther King aptly stated: ‘It is not enough for people to be angry — the supreme task is to organize and unite people so that their anger becomes a transforming force’. Social movements use their power, resources and creativity to turn individual grievances and emotions into collective claims and to stage opportunities to act upon these claims.