Dr. David Orman

Protesting was once a declaration of conviction, a stand taken by people willing to face discomfort to champion what they truly believed. Today it has become something else entirely. Many show up not out of passion or principle but because they are paid to be there. What once required courage has become a side gig. Instead of voices rising from genuine concern, manufactured outrage fills the streets, loud but hollow, organized by those who understand the optics but not the meaning.

Even more revealing is how few of these modern protesters can articulate the causes they claim to defend. They shout slogans they cannot define, argue points they cannot explain, and adopt positions that crumble the moment they are questioned. There is no spine beneath the noise, no rooted belief beneath the chants. It has become social theater, a performance of righteousness rather than an expression of it. The mask of activism is now worn like a costume, discarded as soon as the cameras are gone.

From a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective, this trend reflects a deeper imbalance in the collective qi. When people disconnect from their own center, they are easily moved, swayed, and influenced by external winds. In TCM terms, their Shen becomes scattered, their grounding weak, and their actions arise not from internal harmony but from external disruption. A society filled with unrooted individuals will always be vulnerable to agitation. True change, as TCM teaches, comes only when individuals cultivate clarity, strengthen their center, and act from genuine alignment rather than borrowed outrage.