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Inosculate Yourself!!!

21:28 / 07.10.02

Lots of folks have discussed using the web to promote an alternetive to the BUSH WAR effort

here's another...
Inosculate.com

it's being produced by some friends... I thought you all might like to take a peek, maybe offer your 2cents...

19:14 / 08.10.02

Overall a good effort, I think. Which reminds me of something I meant to bring up before:

During the first Gulf War of '91, the computer revolution was in its infancy. I think 486's were considered "state of the art" back then, and the net wasn't really existant in the form most are familiar with. Some interesting bbs's were up and running (like the WELL), and 'zines were considered radical and cutting edge at the time (I recall lots of little home-grown anti-war publications being circulated back then).

Now that its 2002 going on 2003, things have changed a bit. Now we get to see how the net will be utilized as an effective electronic samizdat forum and antidote to wartime propaganda. Hopefully, the lessons of Seattle and the other anti-globalization protests have been learned. Street protests are all well and good, but the net is also a battlefield for hearts and minds. We shouldn't forget this. Nor should the usefulness of wireless communications be underestimated in the realm of civil disobedience. Time to get crafty.

21:48 / 08.10.02

any recomendations on that crafty?

16:18 / 10.10.02

Crafty as in: stop being predictable. I don't mean to bash protestors, but it all seems so formulaic to me. Having taken part in more than a few in college and since, and seeing how things tend to transpire. Its all well and good to take a stand for something, but we saw how during the Gulf War many protests (and fairly large ones at that) were simply ignored. Denied press coverage or downplayed to the point of absurdity. Meanwhile, pro-war rallies were played up to be bigger than they were. I'm anticipating more or less the same thing for the upcoming conflict.

Then there's the other problem: as we saw in the Seattle protests and other anti-globalization demos, the truly large actions that are impossible to ignore/censor are met with overwhelming force. Its not that the powers-that-be have a problem per se with dealing with demonstrators in this fashion, in fact, they've had a lot of practice in doing so. Which is precisely why other methods are needed. All this technology is now at our disposal, time to use it effectively. Time for the hackers and the activists to stop being islands unto themselves and start sharing info.

As an example of some ideas that I like: indymedia, the borderhack movement, the surveillance camera players, some of the more surreally-inclined demos that were going on in Europe during the 60's (stuff that came out of both the Situs and the whole "happenings" scene there--folks like Jean Jacques Lebel for instance.)

Or am I just dreaming with my eyes open?

23:52 / 10.10.02

Don't think that you're dreaming... but not sure what you mean...

if I was to say something like...
"I can get about 500 people in one place at one time. What you you want them to do?"

What would you have 'em do?
A)show-up at a capitol building boomboxes blasting while some buddies show up with a portable mini-radio transmitter? (how very ... damn forgot the name of that movie with Christian Slatter)

B) Mass e-mail, Call or sit & lick stamps & stuff envelopes.

C) fill in the blank...

18:00 / 11.10.02

I feeeel like you're on to something, or somehow in the general vicinity of on-to-something...

Have you seen the "Baby Invasion" TV ad from thetruth.com? (It's on this page somewhere.)

Say you have some huge number of protesters spread some kind of fairly simple message through non-traditional means--something easy to DIY up like some stickers. Or chalk messages--better 'cause no one gets in trouble for permanent defacement, worse 'cause your timing has to be better.

If enough people see something unusual enough times, they wonder what it is. Just enough to maybe read the sticker, or ask a friend if they've seen them, too. Which leads to some small proportion of those people trying to find out what they mean. The *actual* message spreads now, etc.

I'm typing this as I think of it, obviously. I guess I'm wondering if it would be somehow possible to apply what we've learned from "Andre The Giant Has A Posse", and those paper plates with smiley faces that I hear were showing up all over L.A. for a while, to actual content rather than just gentle surreal play.

19:03 / 11.10.02

Heheheheh.

I loves me some posse stickers.

15:02 / 12.10.02

Lots of possibilites for fun and mayhem with creative memetic engineering and/or poetic terrorism-type actions. I always admired the Cacophony Society (among others) for taking the view of rebellion as a festive act. That's what protests should be, ideally, IMHO.

I think that what put me off protests was the whole ultra-somber, serious, PC stalinist attitudes displayed by various protest organizers and their attempts to "police" protestor conduct. As if the regular cops aren't enough to deal with...Time to bring back some of that pagan carnival spirit. ("Gimme that old time religion".)

Though its a bit hard to catalyze or put into words precisely what I'm suggesting, maybe that's the beauty of it: attempting to defy categorization or labelling. Why do acts of protest have to follow time-worn formulaes? Can't we be original? I'd like to see acts of defiance and opposition that blow people's minds. Parades, street theater, flyers, stickers, pirate radio broadcasts, weird internet campaigns, etc. that force people's jaws to hit the ground. And more. Much more.

Its not like there's not alot to pick and choose from the past as examples of what COULD be, and reassembled, briccolage-style. (Look at what the Diggers accomplished in the 60's, and where they took their inspiration from, for example.) I'm not saying that's the exact same route we should be taking, just an illustration of the kind of thing I'm talking about.

Time to think like magpies and act like clowns (or tricksters if you prefer).