Re: Whats happening here?

[Chuck0 <chuck@tao.ca>]

[: hacktivism :]

Bronc Buster wrote:
> 
> [: hacktivism :]
> 
>   Over the lat few weeks I have been watching in amazement, but not
> suprise, as this list has started to turn into another anti-government,
> consperesy thoery, paranoia mailing-list.
> 
>   I am not saying there have not been a few good threads and posts
> regarding what this list is about, it's just that the number of unralated
> posts are starting to go up. It appears now that anything questionable
> that anyone in any sort of power does is being posted.
> 
>   Might I suggest that people take a look at the lists FAQs, before this
> turns into another of the government bitch lists.
> 
>   I don't mean to offend anyone.
> 
> PS. the new SPIN for November came out today and it has a story on
> Hacktivism in it. Might be worth checking out.

I agree with Bronc Buster. This list is at its best when we discuss our
ideas and proactively plan our future. If I want news about the shit the
government does, I can find that elsewhere. One of the reasons why I've
let my subscriptions lapse to various leftist magazines lapse is because
they focus too much on negative things and shit the governments do. They
seldom show what cool things people are doing to resist or to build a
more egalitarian society.

I'm also worried that when if we rub shoulders too much with these
government/industry "infowarriors", we start to incorporate their
ideology and agenda into our lives. If we focus our energies on creating
our alternative vision, eventually the folks at RAND and the Pentagon
will become irrelevant. The decentralized DIY nature of the Internet has
already demonstrated for many people that an alternative can exist. How
do we protect the good stuff that is out there and fight back against
attempts to turn the Internet into Murdochland?

Ten really good websites about Chiapas with excellent graphics and
well-written content are a more powerful tool for resistance than an
electronic sit-in of the Mexican stock exchange. Since it would be
unfair to just pick on Floodnet, let me use another example. It's all
very well and good to develop a way to bypass filtering products, but it
is more worthwhile in the long run to do outreach to librarians and
parents about the importance of unfettered Internet access in public
libraries. For some problems, technology helps, for others,
old-fashioned grassroots activism does more.

I was really excited this morning to get that post about the website
parody concerning intellectual property. That site is a good example of
a constructive way that we can resist the dominant paradigm, accomplish
some outreach, change some minds, and have fun at the same time.

-- 
Chuck0

Alternative Press Review
http://flag.blackened.net/apr/

Free Leonard Peltier!

"A society is a healthy society only to the degree 
that it exhibits anarchistic traits." 
        - Jens Bjørneboe

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