It is no wonder that when people in power try to silence the voices of humanity, humanity rises with an even greater impetus to speak, and shout, and yell, until it has fully combated any attempts to quash it – and what better way to contend the atrocious endeavours of some leading figures than to manifest protests in palpable form? 

“Let’s fight with words, and ideas, and symbolism”

At the ‘Cambridge Protest against Trump’s Muslim Ban and the UK’s Complicity’ earlier this week, it was clear that such an approach was being followed: through the power of creativity, a tangible record of the opinions, voices and messages of the protestors was transmitted, ensuring that the loathing of Trump’s so-far appalling presidency was heard, and heard loud and clear.

What first was a collection of a few individuals in front of Great St Mary’s Church soon became a brimming, bristling, bubbling mass of waving placards and posters, and, by six o’clock, the cardboard tidal wave had enveloped the whole intersection. Under the foam and paper, the hundreds of protestors became united in their struggle against Trump’s recent actions – despite the ceaseless variety of individual Sharpie-written sentiments, there was one message that the whole mass wished to broadcast: “Love trumps hate”.

But the distinctiveness of each individual placard amplified the attention the protest achieved. From posters calling to support refugee action groups to those imploring people to reject Trump’s presidency, the impact was clear: creative thought was being used effectively against prejudice. Not only were the posters people held a validation of the words they cried, but they were also making the demonstration attractive to others, luring bystanders to get involved by explicitly appealing to a wide-range of priorities. Some of the girls I was making posters with earlier today raised a crucial point about this: it doesn’t matter what medium a message of defiance erupts from, be it a placard, a badge or a sticker, among other means of expression – what mattered most of all was that the statement was visible, and so, the more creative the method of communication, the better.

The ambition of demonstrations is to draw attention to a particular viewpoint. If creativity expresses this opinion, then it is easier for the wider public to acknowledge such an attitude exists and then, hopefully, their agreement with the principle will follow and so more people will join the cause. Without creativity, it would be hard to pithily convey the sentiments of a protest, and so it would be harder still to encourage others to participate.

But the use of creativity for political means goes further than this: some protestors told me that they were inspired to produce posters because they were imaginative people. They felt using their creative skills to support the protest was an active and valuable action that they were able to perform for the movement against Trump. Instead of passively watching others’ actions, they recognised the need to use whatever talents they had to help defy his presidency. Art was their particular weapon, and so, by using this, they felt they were actually making a difference.

Furthermore, creative acts, such as the construction of placards, are non-violent methods of defiance, making such a strategy even more attractive. One speaker at the protest against Trump said: “let’s fight with words, and ideas, and symbolism” – this method is more effective at communicating one’s thoughts, and encouraging others to follow them, than violence. Others told me that their placards represented an attempt to unite their opinions and priorities: an A3 sheet of card has just enough room to sum up your sentiments on key political issues, and enables you to convey these beliefs publically and efficiently.

However, I would argue that the key benefit of the use of creativity in political affairs is the fact that anyone can be involved. You may not be the artiest person in the world – but that’s okay, because you can still write a few words on a piece of paper, and hold it high at a protest. That is what makes creativity such an appealing medium: we are all capable of using our imaginative streaks (I promise we all have one!) to support a good cause.

We’ve only got four years to save the world – from Donald Trump

So, Trump, though you may attempt to control society through your vicious programme of hate, you will never be able to control our opinions against this. And when our individual resilience to your vitriol is united in the ceaseless potency of creativity, we are unstoppable, uncontainable, and, most importantly, unable to be defeated