Saturday, May 24, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
A Comfortable Arsenal
To follow up on my previous post i give you what i hope will be a regular feature on the Homefront of the Revolution: My arsenal of weaponised linguistic products for you and your friends to help destroy the state and capitalism.
I thought i'd begin my stockpile with some words that can really be used by the revolutionary, a practical sense. The page was created in expectation of Black Bloc action during the IMF/World Bank meeting in Washington DC, on September 30th 2001. The author of the website was detained and given 1 year in jail in the United States. Find the texts divided into different categories here
Next up is more of a general resource for your litterary needs, but nontheless carries a great deal of very important information: Wikisource. Wikisource compiles books and texts, most of which are past their copyright. Most of them are also out of print, or available only to academics. THanks to wikisource you can read books that up until recently only very few had access to. A few i could recomend begining by are Bakunin and Thoreau, though you can find the works of any number of authors.
more next week
I thought i'd begin my stockpile with some words that can really be used by the revolutionary, a practical sense. The page was created in expectation of Black Bloc action during the IMF/World Bank meeting in Washington DC, on September 30th 2001. The author of the website was detained and given 1 year in jail in the United States. Find the texts divided into different categories here
Next up is more of a general resource for your litterary needs, but nontheless carries a great deal of very important information: Wikisource. Wikisource compiles books and texts, most of which are past their copyright. Most of them are also out of print, or available only to academics. THanks to wikisource you can read books that up until recently only very few had access to. A few i could recomend begining by are Bakunin and Thoreau, though you can find the works of any number of authors.
more next week
Words are our first step towards freedom.
A while ago I worked on a newspaper that ran in my school for a year and a bit. It was a pretty good newspaper, as far as student generated newspapers go. It was feircely anti-establishment, and mostly focused on leftist, or leftist oriented politics. Thanks to the mix of political opinions in the writting team it somehow managed avoiding sounding preachy and annoying. All good things come to an end, and sometimes also the bad ones. The newspaper disapeared as the folks (including me) who wrote it drifted off to wherever it was their lives led them.
For a while i though nothing more of Rioter's Block. As a matter of fact i though nothing more of alternative journalism in general. Then i picked up a newspaper called Machetarte.
Words are deceptively weak. We use them everyday to do everyday things. We use them to ask for directions, a sandwich, a drink, forgiveness. Like farm tools we use them to provide for ourselves. Thanks to our words we obtain our daily bread. But like farm tools, words can be quickly turned into weapons. What we once use to get a train ticket, or the time of day, we then use to strike out at those that threaten us in some way. But like the everyday violence committed using pitchforks, machetes or scythes, most of the the violence exerted using everyday words in our everyday setting is useless.
Machetearte is your very typical, run-of-the-mill leftist newspaper. The very paper reeks of the righteous outrage of some greasy haired young socialist typing away in a basement, or the self-centered ramblings of some grey-haired syndicalist. Like the crushing majority of leftist litterature (and unfortunately a large aprt of revolutionary litterature too) it is tedious and self-refferential. Unless one is intimately acquainted with the intricacies of the workings of some union, or the exact circumstances of such-and-such demontration, or the political and historical precedent for the petty little battle between one trotskyte group and another, the newspaper is entirely worthless to the common person. What it aims to do is tell people of the opinions, or tell people of the pet-peeve of the author.
Words, like farm-tools, have no purpose other than to be used. The purpose of the scythe is not to help the farmer reap, as the purpose of a word is not to overthrow the state. Tools only hold the purpose that their users give them. A machete can become a weapon, when the peasant slices the land-owner's throat; just as words can become weapons, when the revolutionary uses them to share his own thoughts with the world.
Reading a text that comes from outside the established media institutions is a breath of fresh air. Indeed a vital breath of fresh air. Without this essential input from those who do not operate within the powerful news conglomerates, the mind becomes stale and rotten. The incestuous relationship that news-outlets havebetween themselves has produced a homogoneous landscape throughout the world.
Reading Mechetearte made me realise that most people use words the same way they were taught to use words. As means of procuring daily bread, or of simply showing something to someone. Most people use words the same way or ape-like ancestors did when they were still learining hwo to use opposable thumbs: simply as tools to fullfill needs within the community. Simply put: we are using words to get bananas and show people where to get more. Fortunately most of the human race has evolved a little and words are now being used as powerful weapons to change the way people think. Why is it then, that next to no-one is taught how to do this? Why is it that when persuasive writing is involved it almost always serves the basic necessity of getting a job? Why is it that the best and brightest persuaders work for the capitalist? Why is it that people have failed to weaponize their vocabulary?
Words like almost every other powerful weapon in mankind's arsenal are used to subjugate and control the masses. Words are what the media use to carefully control the way they present the "facts". This is the most powerful tool that the modern economic tyrants use to exert their control over the masses. Should revolutionary, or unstable elements of the populace get their hands on this weapon, the subtle and powerful control that the powerful have on the weak would be forever broken. With the ability to influence the way people think about power, wealth and capitalism revolutionaries would acheive their ends. With effective control over the power of words, as well as a coherent view of reality to support this power very little could stand in the way of the revolution.
To weaponise a tool takes only two things. Intent and ability. Many people have the intent but lack the ability to aply this intent to the tool. And this is exactly what the powerful want.
Words are deceptively weak, because we are deceived into thinking they are.
Words are the only weapon of those wihtout the recources to make bombs, without the numbers to stage a revolution. Words are the main weapon of the poor and disenfranchised. Words are our first step towards freedom.
I was wrong to give up on the power of words. I encourage everyone to take a language class, to learn more about words. I encourage everyone to place their thoughts into letters, words, sentences, paragraphs: manifestos written by each and every one of us. Most importantly give your words intention, life, movement: give your words power.
For a while i though nothing more of Rioter's Block. As a matter of fact i though nothing more of alternative journalism in general. Then i picked up a newspaper called Machetarte.
Words are deceptively weak. We use them everyday to do everyday things. We use them to ask for directions, a sandwich, a drink, forgiveness. Like farm tools we use them to provide for ourselves. Thanks to our words we obtain our daily bread. But like farm tools, words can be quickly turned into weapons. What we once use to get a train ticket, or the time of day, we then use to strike out at those that threaten us in some way. But like the everyday violence committed using pitchforks, machetes or scythes, most of the the violence exerted using everyday words in our everyday setting is useless.
Machetearte is your very typical, run-of-the-mill leftist newspaper. The very paper reeks of the righteous outrage of some greasy haired young socialist typing away in a basement, or the self-centered ramblings of some grey-haired syndicalist. Like the crushing majority of leftist litterature (and unfortunately a large aprt of revolutionary litterature too) it is tedious and self-refferential. Unless one is intimately acquainted with the intricacies of the workings of some union, or the exact circumstances of such-and-such demontration, or the political and historical precedent for the petty little battle between one trotskyte group and another, the newspaper is entirely worthless to the common person. What it aims to do is tell people of the opinions, or tell people of the pet-peeve of the author.
Words, like farm-tools, have no purpose other than to be used. The purpose of the scythe is not to help the farmer reap, as the purpose of a word is not to overthrow the state. Tools only hold the purpose that their users give them. A machete can become a weapon, when the peasant slices the land-owner's throat; just as words can become weapons, when the revolutionary uses them to share his own thoughts with the world.
Reading a text that comes from outside the established media institutions is a breath of fresh air. Indeed a vital breath of fresh air. Without this essential input from those who do not operate within the powerful news conglomerates, the mind becomes stale and rotten. The incestuous relationship that news-outlets havebetween themselves has produced a homogoneous landscape throughout the world.
Reading Mechetearte made me realise that most people use words the same way they were taught to use words. As means of procuring daily bread, or of simply showing something to someone. Most people use words the same way or ape-like ancestors did when they were still learining hwo to use opposable thumbs: simply as tools to fullfill needs within the community. Simply put: we are using words to get bananas and show people where to get more. Fortunately most of the human race has evolved a little and words are now being used as powerful weapons to change the way people think. Why is it then, that next to no-one is taught how to do this? Why is it that when persuasive writing is involved it almost always serves the basic necessity of getting a job? Why is it that the best and brightest persuaders work for the capitalist? Why is it that people have failed to weaponize their vocabulary?
Words like almost every other powerful weapon in mankind's arsenal are used to subjugate and control the masses. Words are what the media use to carefully control the way they present the "facts". This is the most powerful tool that the modern economic tyrants use to exert their control over the masses. Should revolutionary, or unstable elements of the populace get their hands on this weapon, the subtle and powerful control that the powerful have on the weak would be forever broken. With the ability to influence the way people think about power, wealth and capitalism revolutionaries would acheive their ends. With effective control over the power of words, as well as a coherent view of reality to support this power very little could stand in the way of the revolution.
To weaponise a tool takes only two things. Intent and ability. Many people have the intent but lack the ability to aply this intent to the tool. And this is exactly what the powerful want.
Words are deceptively weak, because we are deceived into thinking they are.
Words are the only weapon of those wihtout the recources to make bombs, without the numbers to stage a revolution. Words are the main weapon of the poor and disenfranchised. Words are our first step towards freedom.
I was wrong to give up on the power of words. I encourage everyone to take a language class, to learn more about words. I encourage everyone to place their thoughts into letters, words, sentences, paragraphs: manifestos written by each and every one of us. Most importantly give your words intention, life, movement: give your words power.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Luz
Luz: Girl of the Knowing is a brilliant comic written and drawn by Claudia Dàvila. It relates the experiences of a girl trying to prepare for a post peak-oil world. The comic itself is full of neat ideas and solutions. However the real power of the comic is to make the problems of surviving in a world without oil or coal or natural gas much more real than mere theoretical considerations, entertained by scientists and used by politicians. It really brings home the dillemmas and sacrifices that we will have to face in order to live beyond the tyranny of oil. More than just a very cute comic fill of resources, Luz is really a wake up call to those who think these problems are far away, and the solutions unrealistic.
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