Is rebellion possible?

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i think this is a genuine/legit worry for our future. or rather our present. i'm tempted to say that popular pressure can make for small victories. but that isn't always true (i live in wisconsin FWIW, and all the protests have made nary a dent in the GOP's plan to turn the state into a fully privatized plutocracy) and small victories can seem like no victories at all when you take the full sweep of political change into view.

i think people assumed that n/a was referring to rebellion-as-lifestyle i.e. Punk© but he's not.

flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Monday, 10 June 2013 20:06 (ten years ago) link

"like what is she going to do when the government does something she thinks is wrong?"

bitch about it on facebook. just as her ancestors did.

scott seward, Monday, 10 June 2013 20:08 (ten years ago) link

work and act locally outside of official channels. teach your daughter to do the same.

scott seward, Monday, 10 June 2013 20:10 (ten years ago) link

most effective "rebellions" against government occur when something severely impacts the lives of those who wind up protesting -- segregation, the draft, etc. "You peeked at our phone records" is just not a significant enough harm to get most people into the streets.

i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Monday, 10 June 2013 20:11 (ten years ago) link

grow vegetables together. read her mezz mezzro's autobiography. teach her how to defend herself. then let her out into the wild.

scott seward, Monday, 10 June 2013 20:11 (ten years ago) link

teach her how to fish too. always a good thing to know.

scott seward, Monday, 10 June 2013 20:13 (ten years ago) link

most effective "rebellions" against government occur when something severely impacts the lives of those who wind up protesting -- segregation, the draft, etc. "You peeked at our phone records" is just not a significant enough harm to get most people into the streets.

also even effective rebellions didn't have immediate results

iatee, Monday, 10 June 2013 20:15 (ten years ago) link

struggle is its own reward

(i actually think people really need to believe that in order to keep on. unfortunately it's very hard to believe that.)

flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Monday, 10 June 2013 20:24 (ten years ago) link

But it's much easier to believe that when you don't otherwise have a comfortable life at your fingertips.

i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 01:19 (ten years ago) link

yes

flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 01:22 (ten years ago) link

hash (mmm) tag drunk talk :taking in account that the internet of now helps to create more links of all sorts between people( experiences, goods and services , feels etc) and young people nowadays are getting sort of away from politics and invest their lives into socially conscious businesses , non profit organizations etc maybe in a couple of decades will pop up a need for a kind of news service that informs us of what "we" do, and the ameliorations in other workplaces will rejoice us not because we have a "big heart" but because it makes our life more liveable.

Sébastien, Tuesday, 11 June 2013 01:36 (ten years ago) link

Rebelling is easy: Drink a beer, smoke a cigarette, and listen to rock 'n' roll music.

Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 01:48 (ten years ago) link

And/or get a tattoo.

Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 01:49 (ten years ago) link

p sure mlle. n/a will find plenty of ways to try to stick an oar in history and if she feels like she can't do that "anymore" by buying clothes and records well no shit right? maybe we're talking about different things here.

the white queen and her caustic judgments (difficult listening hour), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 01:54 (ten years ago) link

work and act locally outside of official channels. teach your daughter to do the same.

― scott seward, Monday, June 10, 2013 4:10 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nothing wrong with doing that if that`s your bag but i don`t think that counts as rebellion

flopson, Tuesday, 11 June 2013 01:59 (ten years ago) link

I think cities half-submerged will do wonders for rebellion.

ballin' from Maine to Mexico (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 01:59 (ten years ago) link

history of the Aegean says no

sleepish resistance (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 02:02 (ten years ago) link

half-submerged cities opens up all kinds of waterworld steampunk rebellious ways of dress

iatee, Tuesday, 11 June 2013 02:04 (ten years ago) link

but I guess if everyone dresses like they're in waterworld the only way to rebel is wearing a suit or something

iatee, Tuesday, 11 June 2013 02:05 (ten years ago) link

in a signifier saturated world the only true rebellion is to wear some old signifiers

sleepish resistance (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 02:06 (ten years ago) link

"nothing wrong with doing that if that`s your bag but i don`t think that counts as rebellion"

i left out the part about mentally renouncing citizenship and never travelling more than 100 miles from your home and being as self-sufficient has humanly possible.

scott seward, Tuesday, 11 June 2013 02:24 (ten years ago) link

einh

flopson, Tuesday, 11 June 2013 02:28 (ten years ago) link

i guess technically if everyone did that u might consider it a revolution

flopson, Tuesday, 11 June 2013 02:29 (ten years ago) link

snark = revolution

sleepish resistance (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 02:31 (ten years ago) link

idk why u would worry about this in the era of anonymous.

time considered as a helix of semi-precious owns (zvookster), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 02:45 (ten years ago) link

Vote from the rooftops?

Kiarostami bag (milo z), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 02:47 (ten years ago) link

xps noodle vague ok but i wasn't claiming that that snarky post was revolutionary!

i just don't think living on a yurt is revolutionary... you're supposed to fight power not just try to live beyond its grasp, right?

flopson, Tuesday, 11 June 2013 02:49 (ten years ago) link

that's ok, i was as fucked with myself as you - once revolution becomes a school subject what's left but kicking yourself? too many meetings of like-minded souls bitching each other out?

yeah, revolution is all of us or none of us, you're right

r common stop-pretendin (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 02:52 (ten years ago) link

hm. am i shadowbanned or hwattttt?

Sébastien, Tuesday, 11 June 2013 03:00 (ten years ago) link

jokes

Sébastien, Tuesday, 11 June 2013 03:00 (ten years ago) link

n/a's child is john connor

flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 03:04 (ten years ago) link

t's s, s s s
(hope u got the beat right)

Sébastien, Tuesday, 11 June 2013 03:06 (ten years ago) link

"Withdrawing in disgust is not the same thing as apathy."

Kiarostami bag (milo z), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 03:09 (ten years ago) link

^^ Sounds very Thomist.

Aimless, Tuesday, 11 June 2013 03:12 (ten years ago) link

"Withdrawing in disgust is not the same thing as apathy."

― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Monday, June 10, 2013 11:09 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

No, it's much more narcissistic.

i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 03:19 (ten years ago) link

rebellion can be more than one thing.

scott seward, Tuesday, 11 June 2013 03:58 (ten years ago) link

and everybody doesn't have to do the same thing.

scott seward, Tuesday, 11 June 2013 04:02 (ten years ago) link

how can you move a table if everyone doesn't lift at the same time

puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 05:29 (ten years ago) link

i think scott is working w/ a different definition of "rebellion" than most of us

flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 05:40 (ten years ago) link

what if the rebellion in star wars followed scott's suggestions and just found another planet to hang out on? there would be no movies!

flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 05:41 (ten years ago) link

sounds good to me

r common stop-pretendin (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 08:43 (ten years ago) link

High school students should spend more time closely studying the Whiskey Rebellion. For inspiration.

Aimless, Tuesday, 11 June 2013 16:45 (ten years ago) link

what if the rebellion in star wars followed scott's suggestions and just found another planet to hang out on? there would be no movies!

tell me more about this wonderful paradise

Bathory Tub Blues (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 16:49 (ten years ago) link

never forget...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Philip's_War

scott seward, Tuesday, 11 June 2013 16:59 (ten years ago) link

the star wars rebellion kept doing that but the empire kept following them! that's the whole problem.

the white queen and her caustic judgments (difficult listening hour), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 17:26 (ten years ago) link

like sure you're out in your cabin composing your breakup album and suddenly
http://www.technovelgy.com/graphics/content08/snomote-probe-droid.jpg

the white queen and her caustic judgments (difficult listening hour), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 17:27 (ten years ago) link

The only rebellion possible is against materialism, against capitalism, etc. No matter what you do (what you do these days essentially being one and the same with what you purchase) you are locked in the system. The only real rebellion is dropping out, if not completely dropping out then reducing your intake. There is a shroud of insanity that has gripped the globe but it is all illusory. It requires that everyone agree upon the most ridiculously ancient and arbitrary territorial premises.

How ridiculous is the phrase 'fiat money', when money is in itself an abstraction? A derivative representation of real labor, it historically becomes more and more derivative. Recently, quite literally so. On the plus side, the cold hard calculating logic of computers is now in control of most of it, and I think this is where the rebellion will come. Perhaps someday the machines in control of the stock exchange will analyze all data, declare it all meaningless ('fiat') and instantaneously destroy the global monetary system in an effort to make things more efficient. It's a fantasy I like to indulge in, but I don't necessarily think it is required. The internet is democratizing speech, destroying privacy (personal privacy and 'private property') barriers, breaking down political barriers, rendering country lines less and less real, and slowly eliminating the means of production and literally the very tactile nature of the goods and services we have built our society around obtaining and worshiping. What has happened to the music industry and the movie industry will soon happen to pretty much every facet of your commercial life.

Social networks online and the orgy of data-mining is sort of the last hurrah of capitalism. Already we are realizing that private property is an illusion, that privacy is an illusion, that we are all one on this planet together. As more and more points of view are encountered, as more and more people become aware of even the most fringe behaviors (Bronies, anyone?), acceptance and compassion will grow. The recent polls about the public not caring about the NSA support this trend. We are evolving past the old illusions.

This is a pretty terrific thing. It's essentially the start of a spiritual revolution, happening from the outside-in, the material world dissolving.

The internet and the concept of home computers were born in the revolutionary heyday of the 1960s. Engineers often developed these products while experimental with acid and mushrooms, going through ego death, foreseeing a radical new concept of the future, one that is so unique it has historically escaped description. The most radical concepts of the psychedelic revolution -- the death of private property, the breaking down of national barriers, instant global telepathic communication -- are all becoming literally true before our eyes.

Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 17:29 (ten years ago) link

communication's our whole point obviously but if the hippies thought technology would abolish power they've got another thing coming

the white queen and her caustic judgments (difficult listening hour), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 17:31 (ten years ago) link

and while the global communications network does all those things it also physically isolates you from yr brothers and vastly increases the insanely bounteous variety and nuance and omnipresence of ways to express yourself through consumption

the white queen and her caustic judgments (difficult listening hour), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 17:34 (ten years ago) link

(w all that system's attendant exploitation and personally tailored pacification)

the white queen and her caustic judgments (difficult listening hour), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 17:37 (ten years ago) link

i just meant if you mention "living off the grid" a lot of people immediately tie it to 60s/70s/hippies/etc. and it doesn't have to be like that. or worse they tie it to militias/survivalists/cults. it doesn't have to be any of those things.

scott seward, Friday, 21 June 2013 19:19 (ten years ago) link

Living off the grid does require a broad skill set that replaces being plugged into systems that are self-managing. Acquiring that skill set doesn't have to happen all at once, if you don't dive straight into the deep end, but instead select skills you are interested in, one at a time, and learn them as you go along. A lot of the failures among hippies and back-to-nature types in the 70s, when this was big, was a failure to recognize how much they didn't know before they committed to the project. It's more sensible to ramp your way up to it slowly and intentionally.

Aimless, Friday, 21 June 2013 20:04 (ten years ago) link

I think that the "oh that's a 70s thing" comes largely from the widespread failure of most of the people who tried to live off the grid to stick with it.

i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 21 June 2013 21:10 (ten years ago) link

but yeah what aimless said

i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 21 June 2013 21:11 (ten years ago) link

I think "true independence" is kind of a ridiculous fantasy, but that's probably something the marketing department came up with right?

i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 21 June 2013 21:14 (ten years ago) link

has anyone read this?

wtf I am pretty sure I know that building

the Spanish Porky's (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 21 June 2013 21:14 (ten years ago) link

He edits the Web site Off-Grid.net in back of his RV, using a laptop plugged into a cigar lighter (and a wireless modem plugged into a laptop).

Ok, not gonna bother with this one.

i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 21 June 2013 21:18 (ten years ago) link

Also has an epigraph by "E.E. Schumacher" (smh)

i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 21 June 2013 21:19 (ten years ago) link

off the grid = a car battery?

the Spanish Porky's (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 21 June 2013 21:20 (ten years ago) link

and wireless internet!

i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 21 June 2013 21:21 (ten years ago) link

there's no grid dude, it's wireless

i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 21 June 2013 21:21 (ten years ago) link

lol

steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Sunday, 23 June 2013 02:05 (ten years ago) link

maybe he just means he pays his wireless bill in cash, or buys re-up cards for it at walmart

j., Sunday, 23 June 2013 05:52 (ten years ago) link

six years pass...

Jul 4 70 I have become so obsessed lately with the hopelessness of any rebellion against authority that I can only assume that I have come to a sort of climacteric. I read the political page every day and am continually astounded by what I read.

— Richard Burton (@BurtonDiaries) July 4, 2019

a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 9 July 2019 21:45 (four years ago) link

I was around in July 1970 and old enough to see and appreciate exactly what Mr. Burton was reading. Yes, the political state of the USA especially, but much of Europe, was plenty astounding and equally dispiriting.

A is for (Aimless), Tuesday, 9 July 2019 23:01 (four years ago) link


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