My view of the Internet and all the various voices using the media available to make their voices heard using it was of a huge arena packed with clamoring voices screaming at various levels of volume on the sand. All of them looking in different directions, few of them talking to each other, all trying to make contact with the humanity in the stands who had come to be amused, titillated, or in hopes of finding a voice that would speak directly to fears, hopes, and desires.We had managed all of the above.
Our little group was excited to say the least. Even I was I have to admit. Our video had pulled us out of the pit and turned the eyes of the arena towards us. That was definitely exciting. What no one else in our group noticed yet was it had also attracted the attention of the box seat holders. Here, the predators sat and waited for the pit to produce product and data for them. Data for which way the masses were trending. The product was their merchandising of it.
I was also aware of the boxes with the darkened windows. Here sat those whose job was to make sure that if what came out of the pit couldn't be merchandised, co-opted, and diffused it was destroyed. Threats could be tolerated because in the end they always took a seat in one of the boxes when it was offered. True movements that couldn't be controlled were handled by killing the heads of it. We were long past the days of lining the roads with the crucified bodies of the foot soldiers of change. We had even moved past assassinations. Now it was surgical strikes with flying robotic machines for the first tier leaders and renditions to trial and official burial in a cell to underline the point being made to the followers. BIC didn't know it but the clock had just started running for how long he had to live.
20+ years ago, I read a paperback called "Snowblind". It was about a guy who was a very successful smuggler of merchandise, concluding with a high-value product of Columbia in the form of fist-sized white crystals by the ton. This life can only end 2 ways: an early death ( heart attack from overdose, or a business dispute ending poorly) or a small secure room (all expenses paid). The most important thing I remember from the book was this idea/mis-quote:
ReplyDelete"The clock is ticking from the moment you buy or sell your first joint or gram. You have approximately 18 months of relative freedom remaining before becoming the subject of investigation/prosecution. To survive, you will cooperate with the authorities as your "friends" flee and become useless, and your business connections get wind of your compromised status".
Revolutionaries might not get 18 months. Tick-tock.
The clock is running from the moment the incident of attention is done. "Going viral" with an inspiring video is great for the movement, but a disaster for the individuals involved.
Chance of an Agent of the System being inside your organization of 5 is about 50%. The KKK and various Racialist US clubs/org's/churches would have long ago dried up without Federal funding from Agent (multiple Agencies, non-coordinated) members.
The disaster might come in any form, from a clipboard-wielding investigator, a SWAT/SERT team breaking in to your GF's apt., or a Hellfire missile crashing through the roof of your car (police have determined that the car was carrying unstable improvised explosive materials that may have detonated accidentally along a lonely road on the way to a job).
Thus, martyrs are made.
Cheers.
Don't think that I'm trying to discourage anyone who feels the need to do stuff (ELF calls it "direct action", often arson). I understand that sometimes people feel backed into a corner (that's the program! You are supposed to sit down, shut up and comply with whatever "authoritas" comes your way). Consider the wider effects of what you do, and how even greater forces (uncontrollable) can be set in motion.
ReplyDeleteCheers.
pdxr13, thus you have to plan for ultra viral as The Mover has done, and then hope and pray your idea infects the physical world and you have an army of copycats to distract from Stage 2.
ReplyDelete