There was a demonstration Thursday on the South Oval — the goal was to be in solidarity with the California protests. But the organizers didn’t tell anyone anything else. The fact of the matter is, our generation has forgotten how to protest.

Today when we see a protest, we think of half-hearted hippie protests on the left, or the ignorant Tea Partiers on the right. The state of protest in this country is abysmal considering the problems plaguing our nation and world.

From the looks of Thursday’s protesters, you’d think some hippies were having a picnic with some funny looking signs on bicycles telling you the space was occupied.

Here are some tips for anyone who’s going to have a serious protest any time soon.

First, be honest with the journalists who come and talk to you. They come with a pulpit ready to broadcast your message far and wide. Don’t claim to be the turn-of-the-century anarchist Emma Goldman. Demanding a new heaven and a new Earth and an end to the war in Vietnam, as some of Thursday’s protesters did, isn’t going to win support. It will make you look silly.

Second, pay attention to geography. More students may be on the South Oval, but the administration is on the North Oval. If you’re protesting apathetic students, the South Oval is the place to be, but if you’re protesting tuition hikes and funding cuts, you’ll want to protest the administration. Boren’s office is in Evan’s Hall at the end of the North Oval; that’s a good place to start.

Third, be active. Sitting around having a picnic on the South Oval on a pretty day may be fun, but it isn’t a protest. Stand up and do something constructive: write letters, make banners, educate each other. Do something, anything, that’s related to your cause. Inaction during a protest is little more than masturbating the revolutionary impulse — it’s just as bad, if not worse, than no action at all.

Instead of making up excuses to protest, stand up and get legitimately angry about something. Protest the disintegration of our ideals into this politically correct mush, the cycle of poverty or the apathy held by a majority of Americans who solicit disingenuous news providers.

Protests in the name of vanity will inevitably fail.

So get mad, be loud and angry, but do it for a cause and be productive.