Listics

Isn’t it the moment of most profound doubt that gives birth to new certainties? Perhaps hopelessness is the very soil that nourishes human hope; perhaps one could never find sense in life without first experiencing its absurdity.
– Vaclav Havel

People with experience in “the movement” are aware of the existence of secret police units, infiltration and provocateurs. Naive American true believers and blindfolded corporatists don’t often see the evidence. Sometimes the seeming bystanders become part of the play, as clandestine recruits or as manipulated marks. The cheapening of language has helped the forces of repression to gain a foothold in the US. Otherwise intelligent people are unable to distinguish between “attacks” and parody. This lack of nuanced understanding makes all criticism equal and equally outrageous to the ill prepared and uninformed audience. It permits no distinctions, only unitary certainties. It permits only violent reaction and self-righteous declarations of rectitude.

Consider the events of March 26th. A woman attempted to cross from Egypt into Gaza with crocodiles strapped to her body. Maria Telleria, an eyewitness, said,

“The woman looked strangely fat. Even though she was veiled and covered, even with so many clothes on there was something strange. The policewoman screamed and ran out of the room, and then women began screaming and panicking when they heard. [But when the hysteria died down] everybody was admiring a woman who is able to tie crocodiles to her body.”

The Washington Post reports,

A secret FBI intelligence unit helped detain a group of war protesters in a downtown Washington parking garage in April 2002 and interrogated some of them on videotape about their political and religious beliefs, newly uncovered documents and interviews show.

Later The Post reporter amplifies,

The plaintiffs argue that the newly released police logs make clear that the FBI, working hand in hand with local police, is engaged in a concerted effort to spy on and intimidate U.S. citizens who are lawfully exercising their free-speech rights. They contend that this is a national effort that abuses the FBI’s broad counterterrorism powers and equates political speech with a risk to national security.

“It really is a secret police: This is an effort to suppress political dissent,” said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice. “If this was happening in another country that the U.S. was targeting, U.S. officials at the highest levels would be decrying this as a violation of human rights.”

Pop quiz: would you rather read about some nutball trying to cross into Gaza with crocodiles tied to her body, or some flaky protestistas whining about their civil rights? Take your time…

I’d like to talk a little about Greenpeace, the “force de frappe,” the French sabotage of the Rainbow Warrior and the emergence of provocateurs in the blogosphere, but there is something you should understand about weblog genres first. Go here, read this, and if I’m still interested tomorrow, we’ll do chapter two. If not we can look in on the early adventures of Jason and Meg, or something equally momentous.

Jeneane says,

If I have any regret around what has unfolded here, it is that I have not been able to write about these issues. I was silenced early on by repeated threats of legal and police action for something I did not do. I’ve barely felt well enough to get my real work done, let alone work up sufficient outrage over being asked to apologize for my choice in friends, which, for the record, I do not.

She’s obviously not recanted and it is the court’s judgment that she be returned to the stocks, and from thence to the dunking stool.

In comments on an unrelated post, Shelley offers a flipTheBird widget. I would very much like a “Flip the Bird” widget. I could use it to fill the space others might dedicate to a “Bloggers Code of Conduct” badge. I don’t think I’m making too little of this. Rather, I stand with Ronni Bennett on this as she says,

The key, however, is that those codes and rules are personal to each blogger’s sensibilities, not imposed by an outside “authority” handing out “approved” badges linking to a set of rules based on one or a few people’s judgment of what is acceptable speech.

And if that badge idea takes hold, then are those who, like me, stand as First Amendment absolutists against imposed standards of speech to have their blogs labeled – as Tim O’Reilly suggests - “dangerous territory”? One person’s insult is another’s satire. What constitutes foul language is highly individual, as is what is nasty.

Censorship is a treacherous undertaking. Once imposed, it doesn’t take much to go from banning individual words to opinion, books and soon, ideas. And then it has arrived at groupthink.

At MeanKids.org the need for publishing/editorial control was demonstrated to me quite clearly. The intention was satire and criticism, but in some cases the product was no more than insult. There are ways to handle this without censorship. A splash page with disclaimer comes to mind. A central clearing point for a group publication makes sense, an editor with powers to select and edit content from posts and from comments. These are just ideas, and others may have better ideas or a willingness to risk crossing legal boundaries in pursuit of free speech. Frank Zappa, Lenny Bruce, Paul Krassner, and George Carlin are a few of the people who have been willing to say “fuck yourself” to external censors.  And they each paid a price for their principles.  Satire and free speech are not cheap.

From January through March of this year a complex set of circumstances unfolded. During this period some real emotional damage was done, people were hurt. The power of words and graphic images was underscored and the power of the mob was set loose in reaction. I intend to do my best to work with the lessons I learned from these events and to share my perspective on what really happened. By the time I get that posted, I’m sure the blogosphere will have moved on to a fascination with the latest YouTube video of a two legged dog on a skateboard. CNN has covered it now, and we know that America’s finest news gatherers are able to do more in less than four minutes on early morning TV than the assembled blogosphere can do from all the laptops in the land.

Here is some of what AKMA said about that journalistic triumph we witnessed yesterday:

On the other hand: I feel sorry for Kathy having been called a “cute kitty” on international news TV. Although she won’t get thousands of messages decrying this form of misogyny, the media digesters did not blaze any new bold paths in egalitarian journalism when they compared an endangered woman to a small, fuzzy, defenseless feline. No, it’s not as bad as a death threat — but if we’re going to open the topic of malignant effects on women, we should speak clearly and directly about androcentric condescension and “protection.”