The Postmodern Anarchist

You know, maybe I'm not meant to do this blog right now, but I refuse to shut it down. And I do keep seeing things I could post, so I'll keep posting, because some folks find it worthwhile. And because I would miss it. So here are a few things I've recently gathered:

Although I'm not into the "wristband movement", I appreciate the fact that they're usually being sold for good causes. I bring this up because netweed got an email from True Blue, whose Blue State wristbands are raising money for the Mercy Corps to help provide post-tsunami disaster relief. Check it out, I think it will compliment your jeans quite nicely.

According to Adrants, "McDonald's Wants People to Fornicate With Burgers". Kinky!

Dana Stevens reviews Army of One, a documentary following three people over a two year period who enlisted in the U.S. Army. It sounds insightful and depressing. I have to say, it seems particularly sad to hear of one individual who enlisted after 9/11 so that he could "make somebody pay." It sounds like he's the one who's doing all the paying. Dana saw it preceded by a short film called Qaeda Quality Question Quickly Quickly Quiet, a cutup of Bush's "axis of evil" speech, which sounds kind of fun.

According to an "Editors' Note," Army of One will also be shown on the Discovery Times Channel on Thursday, Feb. 3, at 9 and 11 p.m.

I had just been wondering when encrypted communications would go mainstream when I ran into this Wired article about Ciphire Mail that gives it a great review as a system for authenticating and easily encrypting/decrypting emails. I just wonder how you can verify if it will actually work if you're the kind of person (like me) who really needs easy encryption tools.

I haven't really posted about the earthquake/tsunami disaster in Asia except to mention Jeff Vail's blog and his analysis of the sociopolitical aftermath of this disaster. For more on such concerns, NPR has an interesting interview with Allan Nairn, in which he considers the political situation in Indonesia and Aceh, as well as a related piece on military maneuvering in Sri Lanka.

I think the tsunami has been one of those things that I just can't process and I've kind of avoided processing. Since I don't watch tv on a regular basis, I've missed the incessant hammering of television news media. And, to be perfectly frank, while the Internet may give one access to all sorts of news in a few seconds, it also offers so much that I think one can ignore pretty much anything. So I've avoided this disaster, partly because it's just too overwhelming, but I'm also missing the process of what happens in the aftermath.

The one time I've watched such a process closely was after the SF earthquake in '89. I was lucky enough to be in that quake without personal loss. It shook me up and it also began a process of reshaping the city. The biggest thing I recall from that time was how landlords in areas of the city with high SRO tenancy used the process of condemning buildings to get rid of poor people who couldn't have been evicted otherwise, or not so easily. At some point it became clear that many of those buildings weren't in danger but the process continued, a process that might have taken many years to otherwise accomplish. And it set the stage for the tech boom of the late 90s, a boom that squeezed a lot of slack out of the city for low and middle income people.

The other thing that comes to mind are the effects that the tsunami will have on prostitution and human trafficking. I remember reading an account of pedophiles in Cambodia who were extolling the virtues of poor nations in turmoil, a more open-ended situation where it becomes much easier to acquire other humans. While they were speaking of military disasters, I'm sure such an environmental disaster has similar dynamics, especially given that there is quite a bit of military activity in some of these regions.

Now, if I'd been watching television would I have heard of such things, or would I have been numbed by images of floating bodies and debris combined with accounts of supermodels who barely grabbed their Prada bag off the balcony in time to save their precious vial of cocaine heirloom jewelry?

Actually I bet the Pokia guy could do some good work with everyday objects for communication.

Or, actually, an idea for a theater of everyday life bit that plays off the fact that so many people are walking around seemingly talking into thin air with the attachments they have for their cell phones. Now I've always loved the idea that some of those people were just pretending to have working cell phones while they continued to talk to themselves and/or invisible entities who were otherwise inaccessible. But what if a bunch of people started pretending that everyday objects were cell phones?

I was just trying it with a small eye drop container (is there a better word for that?). Believe me, I was having great laughs moving it from mouth to ear as I talked and then listened on my next wave convergent communication and personal hygiene device. It would be even funnier on the bus! Especially if I rig up a fake ringtone!

If you're interested in anarchy, social change and theory with an awareness of military history and strategy, then you should check out A Theory of Power, a blog by Jeff Vail that I've mentioned before. Right now he's running some really interesting posts about the political aftermath of the Asian tsunami disaster which are well worth checking out. He's also done a nice post on Swarming, Open-Source Warfare and the Black Block as well as one entitled Shelter in Netopia: Hybrid Home Theory. And, yes, it all connects.