Ms Misterman

Illustration by Lena Kulla

 

On Strike (#JuniorDoctorsStrike #Lufthansa)

If Twitter was a person – an embodiment representing the average of all twittery trends – it would be one hell of a choleric. Today’s tantrum: “How dare people go on strike?”

I get it. Strikes are annoying. They are for me, too. But that is the point. Strikes are supposed to annoy, or else they fail to make their point in the first place.

The subject doesn’t matter. The subject most of us cannot debate. What matters is to debate at all.

Consider the alternative. Consider that there is none. Your negotiations have failed. Your threats have proven to be feckless. What to do you do?

For a strike to work, it needs many frustrated people or many people sympathising with a frustrated person. You may not have been discriminated as part of a group. But you know the feeling of being treated unfairly. It’s nagging. It frustrates. Too often, we are alone, helpless against the cause.

Now, you don’t need to empathise with every cause. But you should try to remember the feeling that’s moving others to cause annoyances to your day.