::fibreculture:: The Leisure Class as Lynch Mob (Scientology vs. Anonymous)

[Jean Burgess]

Christian and all (and thanks Mel for re-activating the list, however briefly)...

A bit of a side note re: Anonymous, the chans, and "mischief for mischief's sake..."

I agree that there's clearly a ludic element to all this, and I would bet a fair sum that 'teenagers' is more or less accurate.

I don't know if it's true or not, but there's a rumour going round that one of the Chans (4Chan, I think?) is responsible for deliberately 'bombing' YouTube with comments, favouriting, etc in order to make Chocolate Rain one of the most viewed videos on YouTube, because they wanted to take the piss out of it (and I suppose everyone who subsequently watched it).  It's in Wikipedia (in a quote by Tay Zonday himself, no less), so it must be true. In the section entitled "critical response" (LOL): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_Rain#Critical_response

If you haven't yet had the pleasure, here's the Original Song by Tay Zonday, who as far as I can tell is a socially awkward, overly sincere bedroom musician: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwTZ2xpQwpA

In a literal sense this 'youtube bombing' is absolutely a form of collective activism, if not a purposeful one. And similarly, although I'm assuming many of us secretly delight in anyone attacking Scientology, at least a little bit, the Anonymous war on it doesn't look like it's exactly motivated by a sincere desire to propagate Enlightenment values.  It looks like a game to me.

Another point is that the interesting thing about the Chocolate Rain example (if the Chan myth about it is true) is that the 'meme' took on a life of its own, spawning about a bazillion variations on a few key signifiers (the piano riff, the melody-plus-stupid-lyrics, the "I move away from the mic to breathe in" tagline) combined with memes on memes, that grew way beyond the control of the original 4Chan 'mob', and yet rely on similar subcultural knowledges.  I mean, I submit for your consideration "All Your Chocolate Rain Are Belong To Us":  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUyxurUWtSQ and a cover version by Chad Vader: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6dUCOS1bM0

And then Tay Zonday ends up spoofing the song himself in an ad for some icky Dr. Pepper soft drink: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x2W12A8Qow

Just like most of that I don't really have a point, of course.

But I wonder if the kind of en-masse mobbing that allegedly started the Chocolate Rain 'phenomenon' off would ever work if it had a purpose beyond "influence for influence's sake"?

Cheers
Jean

________________________________
From: Christian McCrea <christian at wolvesevolve.com>
Reply-To: <christian at wolvesevolve.com>
Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:20:17 +1000
To: Katie Cavanagh <Katie.Cavanagh at flinders.edu.au>
Cc: <List at fibreculture.org>
Conversation: ::fibreculture:: The Leisure Class as Lynch Mob (Scientology vs. Anonymous)
Subject: Re: ::fibreculture:: The Leisure Class as Lynch Mob (Scientology vs. Anonymous)

Katie,

Thanks for your comments. You are right in that there are some
interesting splits now in hackerdom (probably no longer accurately a
movement) and one of these directions is mischief for mischief's sake.
The creative technologist element has a new set of toys and tools to
engage with, with political capital and cultural forms to embody their
interests. If we look at what has occurred online since 2000, many
less people use email regularly than used to; as so much social action
migrates to the social database. (I call Facebook and Myspace social
databases here).

Also, while it is true that a DDoS requires skill and motivation,
there are automators involved that merely run on the desktop (again,
with an image macro superimposed over the status area) and keep you
updated of the damage you are causing on the target websites. There is
an element of leisure - of play - I think. Anonymous is obviously not
able to be classified as any age, but I say teenagers by making
certain calculated assumptions about music, film and gaming tastes -
visible in many of their forum threads - that reflect certain ages.

The hostility to Internet culture generally (to Myspace, Facebook,
Second Life, Habbo especially) makes it an interesting discussion
point for those looking at activism and resistance online, I think -
in form if not in content.

-Christian McCrea

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