2 posts tagged “youtube”

A friend texted me, confessing that they were in tears while he delivered his speech. I wish i'd caught the beginning so i could have enjoyed the catharsis. I found a full text of the speech, and picked out my favourite passage. After some rousing passages on Universal Healthcare and Education, came this. I think he'll make a fine president.

"The other side will come here in September and offer a very different set of policies and positions, and that is a debate I look forward to. It is a debate the American people deserve. But what you don't deserve is another election that's governed by fear, and innuendo, and division. What you won't hear from this campaign or this party is the kind of politics that uses religion as a wedge, and patriotism as a bludgeon - that sees our opponents not as competitors to challenge, but enemies to demonise. Because we may call ourselves Democrats and Republicans, but we are Americans first. We are always Americans first." (emphasis his)

Though i missed the CNN of this speech, i did get to switch over to Fox News. It was instructive. Their hand wringing either pathetically weak, or downright mutinous. Their talking heads were so moved by Obama's speech, and were so ready to concede this, rather than their usual 2c hack job, that Brit Hume crossed to a different (and totally unprepared) studio... the new host confessing his surprise that he was suddenly on the air before trotting out Karl Rove (the architect of the Bush Campaign) ... and the best part was that even he was stuck with a measly handful of terribly weak comment. e.g.

So he wants to pay teachers ... as far as i know how this is the first time that the federal goverment has gotten involved paying local teachers, how exactly is he going to do this?

... which hardly sounds like an attack ... and nor does:

Over coffee, Al and I got to talking about taking a Cadillac roadtrip down the campaign trail come september... doing a Fear and Loathing on the campaign trail ... i think that it's too perfect and too historic a campaign to miss. Al is keen to follow McCain as he slowly falls apart, and to document - film verite for youtube - the paid rent-a-crowds ... i'm keen to use it as an opportunity to be terrifically Australian (they LOVE us over there), and charmingly american kitsch in 10 gallon hats, stetson boots ... maybe even six shooters ... vox-popping our way along the campaign trail and through the contradictions of neo-conservatism. I.e. this strange alliance between the radical Libertarianism of  Poor White Rural America, and the egregious Plutocracy that the Republican Leadership not only represents, but IS.

We could us the charming wild-west hick image that the american's have of us to totally disarm them, and as a humourous wedge to open the door to some biting irony and mock-surprise on our parts.

Al came up with the title "Shock and Awe"

... so tempting. Anyone else wanna come?

Lately, I've been surprised and impressed by a massive Action that I felt was gesturing to the future of e-democracy, not to mention, a real sign of the times. It's fascinating (and equally hilarious) because it was organised entirely online, and entirely by youngsters who have grown up taking the interenet for granted-- many of these kids participating in a public act for the very first time. Starting online, and rapidly taking on a global real-life presence picketing, in some 40 different countries, and some 120 locations. This all in less than three weeks since the above words were uttered.

I'm speaking of Anonymous, and their campaign against Scientology known around the nets as Project Chanology.

I don't know how you feel about this kind of political action, or Scientology for that matter, and I'd be interested to hear other peoples thoughts. Is this e-democracy? Some early form of things to come?

I was interested in them, Anonymous that is, as a political phenomenon. They're a unique kind of protest movement-- as it's a global protest organised entirely organically, without leadership, entirely online, by kids almost all of whom are under 18. Young kids who before their protest didn't know each other except for myspace, bulletin boards (notably the most popular and perhaps foulest imageposting boards on the internet, 4chan.org) and other bits of the internet.

... and with a tone and humour completely unlike anything i've seen in all my years of activism.

For those interested, the primary sources are all online (in large part thanks to Anonymous itself) and can be found in these four locations. For fairness, i'd include some statement by Scientology itself. But fuck that.

1. The censored propaganda video, now freely available, alongside many satirical cut-ups.
2. An archive of the forum discussion on 4chan.org where the movement started, inflamed by the censorship of the above video. (warning, contains terrible grammar, IM lingo, profanity, nudity ... everything)
3. The infamous and chilling Manifesto / Declaration of War issued by Anonymous. This is the one that launched the global campaign of protests. A must see, here.
4. Their own collective autobiography, and description of Scientology on their online dictionary, a Hysterical take on Wikipedia: Enclyclopedia Dramatica.

The movement first coalesced around the issue of censorship - internet censorship - when Scientology lobbied for, and successfully removed from YouTube an internal propaganda video of Tom Cruise at his disturbingly inspired best. These kids thought it was hillarious, and were initally pissed off that they were being denied legitimate LOL (or 'lulz' as they say) Taking on an indignant tone, with tongue placed firmly in cheek, they started a campaign against the 'Church'.

Their first act was to take down the Scientology website. This was done with a kind of internet picketing. Variously described as 'hacking' or 'vandalism' by it's detractors, a DDoS is actually far from an secret or underground act. Details of how to do this yourself can be found in the archived discussion linked above, alongside the exhortations that sparked Anonymous to do so. Simply put, a DDoS involves getting a bunch of friends to block the gates to Scientology.org-- having each protester start mass downloading of all the images of the site, hogging the targets bandwidth, and thereby denying access or 'service' by the public. I large number of individuals are required to participate in such an act, and this makes it inherently political. Those that describe it as 'hacking' deliberately misleading by adding connotations of criminality and (in this case) literally calling them terrorists.

This online act quickly evolved into a series of real life protests that drew from an astonishingly wide variety of inspiration, history and tradition of protest, taking on a character that - to me at the least, and to them most certainly - was hillarious, and hillariously irreverant.

The real life protest that I went to in Sydney, focused on being funny. The chants were themselves highly ironic: parodies of traditional leftist chants, done in fancy dress outfits replete with pop-culture references, and a heavy dose of internet in-jokes to polish things off.

Yes, everyone was in fancy dress: Xenu inspired Alien masks, V for Vendetta outfits, and Matrix style 'Agents' abounded. WWII Gas masks and surgeons masks worn in the asian style thrown in for good measure.

The chants tended, when more serious, to gravitate around cheers such as "tax the cult", but more often were funny "show us your thetans (clapclap, cla-clap clap)" with by far the most popular item being a poster "HONK if you think SCIENTOLOGY is a CULT"-- which was very popular with passers by, even with the authorities: the fire department took their trucks around the block to drive their especially loud truck horns past ... twice!) ... huge cheers erupted from the crowd ... huge cheeky smiles written across the faces of protesters and fireys alike.

All this and (because these kids are all internerds) the repeated playing of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" on portable boom boxes. This being an inside joke: It's become folklore or internet tradition for young netsters to verbally outwit their opponents, and then falsely link them to a copy of the song with a phrase such as "you suck, click here for proof". The link being to Rick Astley's ... this virtual victory is known as a 'Rickroll', and the second Anonymous protest was declared a "Global Rickroll on Scientology"

So, my question is this: Should we see this a sign of things to come? If so, what? It's hard to draw concrete political conclusions from a process that is still building itself and gaining consciousness-- and i'll refrain from doing so here ... but perhaps we can see something of a less apathetic generation growing here. Their tastes, and there quite remarkable ability to organise, all on their own.