During the 2008 Presidential Election in America, I consistently saw signs in the pro-Obama camp with the slogan “Recreate ‘68,” as if trying to capture the sense of near-revolutionary spirit of the time period. It seemed a strange thing to allude to in American culture since, in America, 1968 was a great swelling of revolutionary thought, idealism, and activism that somehow slowed and what seemed initially like a tsunami, threatening to engulf and envelope American politics, changed merely into a rapidly dwindling eddy in the water.

1968 was not, however, without its accomplishments. In the near revolutionary environment in France, wildcat strikes and student occupations effectively unseated the de Gaulle government, moving the country in a new direction. It seems perhaps there were several differences in the political/social landscapes which afforded France this opportunity as it was lost in America. To begin with, France had the advantage of a small geographical area and smaller overall population, allowing subversion to spread quickly, and allowing a more firm underlying ideology. Part of this ideology stemmed from the work of Situationist International, which was founded in part by Guy Debord, who has obviously influenced my ideas in terms of the Spectacle, images and representation. Also, beyond having an underlying ideology that spread throughout the populace as a whole (whereas in America, two groups which could have worked together to the same ends; the young urban hippies and the under-represented workers unions, were too disparate and couldn’t bring together a rational working dialog between the two groups.), France was also not as far along as America in terms of militarizing their police force. America has for an extended period worked to heavily militarize its police force.

Today, as the isolation of the internet is splintering working ideologies amongst citizens and country, more than ever, in America and the European Union, we have the most highly militarized police forces in history. Increasingly we learn that even in America, our police forces are being taught to view “protests” not as constitutionally protected free-speech dissent, but instead as a radical and dangerous kind of “terrorism.” We encounter more and more difficulty in protests being successful as our militarized police forces make plans of attack long before scheduled protests for corralling protesters into “free speech zones” often far removed from the important event in question. A prime example was the overzealous response by police forces during the Republican National Convention in 2008.

So, the question we have today is: If we are unable to affect viable change through citizen protest as we were once able to due to highly militarized police forces, how can we affect positive change in the 21st century?

0.1 – Identity Correction and Information Management

The Yes Men, a prankster group of activists, have seemingly found an effective way to promote their activism through corporate infiltration and a practice they refer to as “identity correction.” Through clever use of information management; producing websites and emails strikingly similar to those of large corporations/corporate entities, they are able to confuse large groups of people into contacting the Yes Men instead of the intended corporation/entity. These sites always have small traces of the “truth” of corporate activities, using the same plainspoken language corporations often do to make their calculated evil sound like positive steps for humanity. This seems as though it would be enough to tip off unsuspecting individuals that this website is not serious, not a part of the greater corporate entity they wish to contact, but it is just subtle enough to confuse and misdirect most.

The Yes Men’s unique form of culture jamming would be unlikely workable if it were not for their clever technological prowess and efficient information management skills. By accurately mimicking the doublespeak nature of most corporations, as well as using web portals that are similar enough in design to still be considered “parody” legally, they trick and confuse the less technologically adept into allowing them to infiltrate many different positions. More than once the pseudonym of Hank Henry Ünger has been asked to speak on behalf of the World Trade Organization, at events as diverse as economic/trade organization meetings to speaking appearances on CNN Europe.

A Yes Man impersonating a representative from Dow Chemical:

The point here being that, while the Yes Men dabble in the practice of social engineering, their underlying ability to affect change through their prankster tactics is almost exclusively enabled by their technological prowess. The internet is bringing activists a new tool to use in the war against the status quo. It’s importance is unmeasurable as it becomes the 21st century version of the printing press, breaking down physical barriers of dissemination, allowing more voices to be heard.

However, as this Cat and Girl comic astutely points out, the more voices that are heard, the less legitimacy each voice has. So, how do we overcome the social isolation of the internet and the increasingly fragmented social/political groups to produce activism that is useful in the 21st century?

0.2 – Internet Hate Machine Produces Epic LULZ

In this instance, I turn to 4chan and the cult of Anonymous, the so-called “Internet Hate Machine.” The history of 4chan is as storied as the internet itself, as it is not only the birthplace of many of the most popular memes that have penetrated human culture, but it also has done major work in terms of what I would refer to as hacktivism.

Hacktivism is, of course, activism via the use of “hacking” techniques to spread a thematic idea, message, or disseminate secret information to the populace. Perhaps a modern incarnation of Deleuze’s “handyman/bricolage,” the hacktivist is the tinkerer, wishing to activate change through changing a system to produce something unintended. 4chan/Anonymous would certainly fit the definition of being particularly schizophrenic in their mode of production. 4chan/Anonymous participate in hacktivism in spades, with such examples as the Youtube Porn attacks, the recent Twitter “gorillaporn” attacks, rumors about Steve Jobs having a heart attack, DDoS attacks against Scientology websites/servers, hacking the TIME Magazine Top 100 Most Influential People of 2009 internet poll to not only make the creator of 4chan, moot, the winner, but also to leave a message to remind TIME and everyone else that even more than moot, Anonymous are the most influential group.

Anonymous, while working effectively as a group to affect massive attacks against established entities, apparently has no serious underlying ideology. Well, that’s not entirely true. “I did it for the lulz,” can be referenced as the “why” behind their manic and serious group effort to undermine the philosophies and representations of popular web portals. While Anonymous may only be partaking in such hacktivism due to a want to create laughter and joy amongst their peers (once again, creating their own elite hierarchy of commodity fetishism.), they are one of the few groups actively partaking in the detournement or “remixing” of popular culture, revealing the empty truth behind the propaganda of the Spectacle, the hype machine. Their work reveals the underlying absurdity in the messages of the Spectacle, desperate to convert others to their own malicious brand of absurdism.

0.3 – The Electronic Revolution

So, how do we tie this to an ability to affect positive change in a modern society where we are unable to physically actuate effective protests? The answer seems obvious, the political activist must follow the lead of the Yes Men and Anonymous. The “Electronic Revolution” as Burroughs called it, is the last bastion and the most readily available to our generation. To become the pranksters of media, using our generations ability to control and manipulate information to affect change.

We have this one small margin of time to take firm hold of what may be the last opportunity for activists to affect change in the 21st century. As it stands, we have world leaders who are of an older generation, a generation that did not grow up with computers, high speed internet, ipods, social networking, and an ever-shifting technological landscape. They still live and die by television propaganda, most unable to conceive how to properly use the new Spectacle of the internet to spread their propaganda. President Obama is a good example of the beginning of the end of this margin of time, as his meager understanding of modern technology allowed him to use the internet to win the Presidency. Very quickly government agencies such as the NSA, CIA, and FBI are working towards becoming “militarized” in terms of information security. This on top of secretive international treaties such as ACTA, which has had no input from the citizenry of any country, a document heavily influenced by the Entertainment-Industrial Complex, dedicated to pushing copyright to become a fully criminal act, no longer merely civil court cases. This much is obvious through the small amounts of information leaked on ACTA as well as the long-running propaganda campaigns of the Entertainment Industry which would have you believe you can actually be arrested for copyright infringement, which is ludicrous at best and a dangerous psychological precedent, at worst.

We must quickly grab hold of this dwindling opportunity to accomplish more than spreading “epic lulz.” We must use the tactics of Anonymous and the information management and social engineering skills of the Yes Men. In the words of Lenin, “One should begin from the beginning again” when approaching how to be revolutionary in modern times, and consider that the old options for activating change are no longer revolutionary. With ever-more militarized police forces, the internet and the ability to distort information and use it to mock and confuse is increasingly our only viable option.

0.4 – Anti-sec and the Fall of Full Disclosure

Finally, I come to what spurred the thought behind this Theses. Today, Imageshack was hacked for a short period, and uploaded images would all resolve into the following image (click for full size version):