When Rick did his series of posts on bitcoins, I realized that it might be important to also do a series of posts on the Digital Revolution. I will cover the various methods of carrying out our war to protect our civil liberties, and to protect the Internet. This post is on preparing and initial positioning.
They say that war is like chess (others say chess is like war, but you get the idea) the best starting moves in chess are not to get checkmate. They are to position yourself in a way which is strategically advantageous for yourself down the road. Our war needs to be two steps ahead of the game, and we need to ensure when we use direct actions, especially coordinated ones, we can achieve our goals quickly with as little damage as possible. Public opinion is something which needs to be considered, and with it we must remember the rules of getting media coverage: Sex, violence, scandal and celebrities.
We wont be able to do much with Sex, we do not have too many celebrities lining up to help us out either… Scandal, we do well because we are the liberators of information powerful people do not want you to know about, but right now the media is overloaded with tales of Weiners (pun), Julian Assange, PFC Bradley Manning, etc. So trying to get attention with more scandal is going to be difficult. Therefore we need to make them pay attention with violence.
Last time I posted, people understood my speaking of “violence” as to be against people. We do not need to hurt anyone, we must simply protect human rights as outlined by the UN and actively destroy property of those corporations and organization which act against human rights. If you saw a kitten being kicked on the street, would you simply take pictures and report on the actions of the abuser… or would you protect the kitten and stand up for what is right? We are simply being the heroes and standing up for those who cannot stand up for themselves… or will not stand up alone.
We can not just go busting windows and making a big deal without people understanding what we are doing, otherwise the coverage we get, and the impact from the communities that we participate in will be totally against us (as opposed to there just being people who are skeptical of our tactics). So let us look at some ways in which we can get our message out to as many people as possible in direct and educational ways:
Pamphlets:
Pamphleteering has been around since the late thirteenth century and while its old school tech, it is still a highly cheap, effective, and efficient way of getting your message out. I recently quoted some 1/3rd page pamphlets to print: it was 5c per sheet and $5 to have them cut (so for $30 CAD I could get 1,500 pamphlets). Distribution can be as anonymous as you would like, in the United States and Canada any car that is parked on a public street is fair game to have a pamphlet put under their windshield wiper. You could even build up suspense with them, say “The Revolution Is Coming” and give a web address.
Chalk/Paint:
For legality reasons, and because I genuinely think it would make the effort seem more legally credible, we will discuss the following with chalk only.
Making spray chalk or just using standard drawing chalk is a great way to tell people your message. If you get a stencil and make up some spray chalk you can quickly “tag” buildings and sidewalks with a message that will simply wash away with the next rainfall or when someone sprays it off with water. http://www.instructables.com/id/Creative-Discontent-part-3-%3A-Squalk-Squirt-Chalk/
Audio:
A newer and creative way of “tagging” would be audio tagging. You can make cheap devices you stick high on street lamps which will allow you to speak your message to everyone passing by. Inform them of the revolution and the fact that their rights are being infringed. Put one on various popular street corners and if it gets taken down, put another one back up.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Sound-graffiti/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Urban-Cricket-10/ (this one is more just to give you some extra inspiration as the audio here is not really… revolution inspiring)
Talking:
I know this is going to sound out there to some of you, but just standing on street corners talking to people (I suggest dressing nicely – and perhaps hold a sign). Explain to them the importance of what we are doing and that our rights are being stripped away from us every day, and that we are going to have to resort to more direct action if the Media Industries and Government does not take immediate, and substantial, steps in becoming more internet friendly, and to reverse laws that impede civil liberties (DEB/A, IP PROTECTION ACT, PATRIOT ACT, The law that makes it “suspicious” if you are taking photos of monuments in the UK… to name a few).
These will get our message out to people… and let them know revolutions have happened in other countries, and we were the ones giving them aid. We will protect ourselves, and our brothers and sisters, to ensure no person tries to take away our rights as humans.
Consider this the pre-war leaflet dropping. Stay tuned because in three days I will be posting how to make a liquid that smells so bad and lasts so long that you can spill it in the entrance way of a building, and not have to bother chaining yourself because no one will enter. Maybe some other various tools that you can keep in your closet.
Join The Resistance: Part 1 http://bit.ly/kY14Cb
For the international readers:
Please, tone down the alarmist rhetoric. It will only alienate people. No ordinary people feel that the government is waging a war against their civil liberties.
If you want to change someone’s perception of reality, you need to do it with very small steps that are not in strong contrast to their current perception of reality.
Till de svenska läsarna:
Snälla, lägg ner krigs- och alarmistretoriken. Den fungerar inte och alienerar bara vanligt folk. Skulle jag visa den här artikeln för min mamma så skulle hon tro att hon hamnat på vaken.se.
De flesta svenskar idag uppfattar det inte som att staten för krig mot dem utan litar på staten. Retoriken måste utgå från det faktumet och sakta och sakligt tydliggöra och belysa den erodering av de medborgerliga rättigheterna som pågått sedan 9/11.
Personligen tror jag att det fungerar utmärkt att “föra krig” mot de motståndare man inte gillar. Den utomparlamentariska vänstern är bra på det och där finns det massor att lära. T.ex. kan man titta på hur de har gjort med pälsindustrin. Dels finns det de utomparlamentariska grupperingar som släpper ut minkar, limmar låsen på pälsbutiker och trakasserar folk med päls – och sedan finns de parlamentariska politiker som i tysthet sympatiserar med de utomparlamentariska, undviker att kritisera sabotagen och istället uttrycker förståelse för sabotagen med förbehållet att man måste följa lagen och arbetar för att försvåra för pälsindustrin genom olika regleringar. Dessa grupperingar förstärker också varandra genom att sabotagen det uppmärksamhet till frågan. Resultatet? Det finns knappt någon pälsindustri kvar i sverige. Pälsbutiker får skyhöga försäkringspremier, folk är rädda för att ha päls och minkfarmande är olönsamt.
Ska det finnas en rörelse av “kapare” (typ anonymous) som attackerar, saboterar och stjäl från de företag som lobbar mot mänskliga rättigheter, så bör den hållas organisatoriskt och retoriskt åtskild från den parlamentariska piratrörelsen. Diskussioner som detta inlägg bör hållas på forum för enbart redan invigda.
För övrigt anser jag att det är en PR-katastrof att sådana här inlägg dyker upp på piratrörelsens andlige ledares privata blogg. Det är hur lätt som helst för press och politiska motståndare att utmåla Falkvinge som en dåre och extremist utan verklighetsförankring. Det spelar ingen roll vem som skrivit inlägget – Rick kommer ändå att få stå för det.
En stor del av alla politiker är någon form av verklighetsfrämmande extremister som lever alldeles för mycket i sina teorier och ideologi. Gör man inte det så blir man inte politiker. De flesta har dock vett nog att hålla tyst om det och utåt hålla en fasad av att man bara vill göra mindre förbättringar och förändringar av samhället. Revolution lockar inte väljare.
You are right, media could look at this post and say “This appears on Falkvinge.net — It must be hist post”. The thing is that media doesn’t want to cover the digital revolution. They have largely neglected the crazy amount of battling that has been going on recently.
US Commerce taken down by Anonymous
US shuts down even more urls
etc etc
They have no desire to cover the topic, if they do they will just turn more people to it.
I also don’t believe that this applies much to Sweden, the damage that is being done there is no where near the damage in the United States and England. It’s important that we let everyone know whats going on.
Now and then, I see stickers talking about the truth about the unsolved murder of sweden’s PM Olof Palme some 25 years ago or get pamplets about how the Bilderberg Group runs the world from the shadows. Typical conspiration theories which I toss away as messages from lunatics. Anybody who get a pamphlet from the pirate party saying that there is a war going on would act the same and assume that the pirate party are a bunch of lunatics that could get dangerous if they were allowed to wander deeper into their delusions.
I agree that the erosion of civil liberties has been worse in the US that in Europe and that people should be informed about it, but talking about a war is just going to make people stop listening.
@Anonymous (for now)
Yes, but at the same time we MUST have mobilization! We must prepare for ever worse conditions with an increasingly closed stae apparatus and escalated attacks on ordinary citizens and their privacy.
Perhaps the movement needs two wings – a “peace wing” and an “operational wing” with no illusions and determined to fight the rising darkness, but without use of physical violance..
Jeffer, thats exactly it… and it’s in my upcoming post (which I have delayed all upcoming posts for a while while I have some things going on and I want them to be better).
I am going to use right and left just to put things on a scale for people to understand, and I don’t mean this politically.
You have governments who are fighting on the far right to take away every civil liberty and want full control over their populations, and you have us who are taking the moderate approach. Peoples brains are wired to look at the two strongest sides and then fall in the middle of them. That means right now they fall in the middle of reasonable and batshit crazy… which is still right.
We WANT to be left… so what we do is have radicals and activists demanding the far left to balance out the right, that way when people are looking at the situation rationally… they see the moderates as the reasonable choice in the middle.
Right now Cory Doctorow and Michael Geist and the rest of them are seen as waay far left, when in reality they should be seen as moderate… so we need to go very extreme to make them look reasonable.
tl;dr, but agree with anonymous above. I don’t feel any particular desire to do ‘war’ on things – war wrecks lives and society. Although, the article seems to suggest using guerrilla marketing strategies to spread a message (presumably pirate party ideology) – that’s okay, and it’s important to spread those ideas, but please don’t call it ‘war’ or ‘revolution’ if it isn’t one. It’s one of those things that alienates potential voters and sympathizers.
Thanks for your great post and I will like to engage in some conversation with you.I am not in the USA or Canada and want to start a moment and will need some help.
I was going to reply individually but I will reply here instead:
I know that to most of us the idea of a revolution sounds scary and that it is something that we cannot even foresee happening. There are a lot of readers who live in Northern Europe where the civil rights abuses are not nearly to the scale that they are in other countries.
I left the United States because I realized that it was becoming a terrorist nation, the molesting of children at airports was the final straw for me. These are the types of places that need to have their revolution. The United States was built on the idea that every 20 years there would be a revolution and that’s what would keep the government honest and the citizens active in protecting their rights. It was founded with the idea of being an isolationist nation, looking out for the wellbeing of their own country and not trying to impede the rights of other nations. These things have not happened in a long time and thus its the responsibility of the citizens and the helpers from the outside to inspire the revolution that was called for by Thomas Jefferson.
Rational people can see nations trying to implement a great firewall, allowing websites to be taken down by a single nation, making it probable cause to take pictures in public (UK), and these various other anti-open actions by governments… and see how they are direct abuses against their citizens. Not only that but these are only first steps, its only logical that if we as citizens afford them these rights now, that they will take more later.
Who knows where Razak might be from, but maybe he will take my words and spread the message about the importance of civil liberties. Maybe he will share the message about how the United States is a terrorist nation. If I was able to help one person with this blog post get the knowledge and confidence it takes to stand up to their abusive government, then it was well worth it.
There can be no revolution without an army, and that’s all this step is about. Talking to people about what we do, find people who are interested in helping, and getting them involved. If our rights continue to be infringed and it gets to the point that we feel that we need to escalate… then that army will be there ready.
To those of you who say this isn’t a war or isn’t a revolution — I encourage you to speak with the people of Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. Their revolution is all of ours.
A few rhetorical tips which I believe could work:
* Don’t call it a revolution – call it a revival, restoration, reclamtion (or something else that suggests a better past) of civil liberties. People don’t like change.
* Assume good faith in all actions of the political enemies. Claiming that a politician have good intentions but are supporting the wrong means make it easier for them to shift their opinion or to acknowledge the pirate position to some degree. The same goes for voters.
Once again, I sympathize with your sentiment. But like Anonymous (for now) said we must be prudent and effective.
One way is resistance through different degrees of refusal to be obedient.
This could be done according to the conscience of each individual. From absolute adherence to the letter of the law, like boycotts, to massive attacks on the copyright regime regradless of formal legality or any kind of punishment.
But observe the attacks are completely non-physical. If blood is shed, we are not the ones doing it.
In the last case we will get our first martyrs. Then things will escalate naturally, as innumerous examples from history will tell…
A natural transition from “casus mobil” to “casus belli.” We will fight, but the blood will be on the hands of our enemies.
Please read the excellent:
“The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude”
by Étienne de la Boétie
It was written in the early 1550s during the religious upheavels in Europe.
Thanks! I truly loved this write-up. I was wondering your opinion about Evergreen?