In preparation for writing this article I did a bit of research.  Yes, shock and horror should follow that sentence – I did research. 

What I was looking for was a bit of information on why the G20 was meeting and what sort of topics it was discussing because as most of you already know, my financial markets knowledge is comparable with that of Wayne Swan – utterly woeful.

Ok, so I actually did know the broad ‘why’ they were meeting, but I was looking for a little more detail so I could write another highly uninformed article. So while I was looking for information that would help me better understand the issues, I came across something vastly more interesting. 

That is, the fact that there were so many idiots protesting in London.

In a nutshell, the protesters at the G20 are idiots.

So! Let’s address the main factors that have these muppet protesters up in arms.

1: The world is in a financial meltdown... and that’s bad.

Yes, unless you are less aware of the world around you than Madonna, you will know that there is a problem with the world’s financial system.  The causes to what precipitated this mess will be debated for decades to come, however, there seems to be a reasonable consensus on the this:

*Insert Alan Kohler voice*

The USA regulatory system failed thanks to:

a) Clinton’s woeful policy making during his last 6 months in office;
b) USA banks seeing Clinton’s affordable housing dream as a chance to make more money than they ever dreamed;
c) The Republicans sitting back and deciding to invest money into wars rather than fixing their economy.

Now, because the USA is the centre of the world's financial system, when Lehman Brothers collapsed *insert Doc Brown voice* it caused a chain reaction that nearly destroyed the entire universe.

However, what do the protesters think is the cause to the collapse of the world’s financial markets?  Easy – global warming, free trade, globalisation, American imperialism, blah, blah, friggidy blah.

Ok, I may have gone a little overboard there, but that’s the problem with these guys.  They turn up at a forum of the World’s 20 biggest economies i.e. the only people in the world who can fix the world’s economy, and decide that this is the time to prance and preach their philosophies on every ideology under the sun.

Give me a break.

If any of these protesters think that by turning up at the G20 and waving dodgy placards and screaming not-so-catchy chants that they will influence any decision made, they are kidding themselves more than Germaine Greer thinking that people have respect for her and her opinions. 

Anyway, I would argue that over 90% of the protesters at the G20 have absolutely zero understanding of what caused the world’s financial problems.  These days, it’s fashionable to be a protester.  Whether it’s global warming, or animal cruelty, or world hunger, you are guaranteed that the ‘socially aware’, or as I like to call them 'leftie hippies', will see this as a platform to get a megaphone and charge at police.

Now, the issues I mentioned above may be legitimate issues, but please don’t turn up and pretend to have the answer to every problem, because I have news for you…

2: There are competing ideologies and competing opinions on how to fix it and there is no silver bullet to fix the problem.

Yes, we’ve heard this line a million times from politicians all over the world, but you know what?  It’s true!  While we may have a Prime Minister who is all spin and no substance, and we have a Treasurer who is all bark and no bite, this is one thing they have been saying that is actually correct.

Now, you may be wondering what the solution is.  The truth is – I have absolutely no idea whatsoever.  Stimulus packages?  Maybe.  Like I said before I have no idea.  However, if you’re a protester, please don’t tell me that you have all the answers, because you don’t.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I’m not saying that it’s wrong to be socially aware.  There are plenty of issues in the world that are wrong and need to be dealt with, but the attitudes and practices of global protesters these days are seriously dodgy.

The biggest problem with protesters is their mindset.  They may think they’re out there being selfless and standing up for the person who has no voice, but they most certainly are being anything but selfless.  In fact, they are being the opposite!

I’ll tell you the message these guys are sending to the world.  It reads something like this:

“I know everything, therefore I alone have the solution.  Come! Listen to and follow me and I will lead you to the path to salvation.”

Arrogance it seems is the key motivations for protesters these days.  The arrogance to think that they alone know the right steps to take.

Let’s not leave it there though!  Let’s have a look at how these so-called ‘peace-lovers’ conduct themselves?

Look at this.

Yes, very ‘peaceful’ aren’t they.

These people seem to think that they aren’t getting their point across until they start a fight, a fire, or force police to shoot them with rubber bullets.  Until protesters start to actually demonstrate peacefully, they will never have a shred of credibility.

So where does that leave us?  Well the G20 seem to think they have the first step to the world’s recovery and Wall St immediately jumped 4%.  Good news!  I’ll tell you something though; none of the protesters care even one iota about this.  None of them care at all that the World’s economy might… just might… be heading back in the right direction.

Instead they’ll keep standing on their soap boxes waxing lyrical about how there are so many problems in the world and how they are the only people who know what should be done.

To these people, I have one very simple message:

“Shut up".

Click here to email Dylan about the above column.

Click here to go back to the homepage.