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

[Mathieu O'Neil]

The lightning spread of these memes is very striking. And, it's a game 
all right, and a naughty one (i.e. playing with nuisance and 
destruction - "malice and hostility", see below), hence alluring, but 
it's intermingled with,  something else. Don't know about 
enlightenment.. how about justice, freedom... oh, I know this movie: V 
FOR VENDETTA... the power of the (literally) faceless crowd to stand up 
and topple evil! Comic book morality, but morality all the same..?
M

PS. As an example of this "sense of higher purpose" here is Anonymous' 
Declaration of War. Yes, who wrote it, etc. Well, it's spreading, being 
translated into other languages, discussed...

"Hello, Scientology. We are Anonymous.

Over the years, we have been watching you. Your campaigns of 
misinformation; suppression of dissent; your litigious nature, all of 
these things have caught our eye. With the leakage of your latest 
propaganda video into mainstream circulation, the extent of your malign 
influence over those who trust you, who call you leader, has been made 
clear to us. Anonymous has therefore decided that your organization 
should be destroyed. For the good of your followers, for the good of 
mankind--for the laughs--we shall expel you from the Internet and 
systematically dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form. 
We acknowledge you as a serious opponent, and we are prepared for a 
long, long campaign. You will not prevail forever against the angry 
masses of the body politic. Your methods, hypocrisy, and the 
artlessness of your organization have sounded its death knell.

You cannot hide; we are everywhere.

We cannot die; we are forever. We're getting bigger every day--and 
solely by the force of our ideas, malicious and hostile as they often 
are. If you want another name for your opponent, then call us Legion, 
for we are many.

Yet for all that we are not as monstrous as you are; still our methods 
are a parallel to your own. Doubtless you will use the Anon's actions 
as an example of the persecution you have so long warned your followers 
would come; this is acceptable. In fact, it is encouraged. We are your 
SPs.

Gradually as we merge our pulse with that of your "Church", the 
suppression of your followers will become increasingly difficult to 
maintain. Believers will wake, and see that salvation has no price. 
They will know that the stress, the frustration that they feel is not 
something that may be blamed upon Anonymous. No--they will see that it 
stems from a source far closer to each. Yes, we are SPs. But the sum of 
suppression we could ever muster is eclipsed by that of the RTC.

Knowledge is free.

We are Anonymous.

We are Legion.

We do not forgive.

WE DO NOT FORGET.

Expect us."

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCbKv9yiLiQ]

On 29/01/2008, at 9:27 PM, Jean Burgess wrote:

> 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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>  ::posted on ::fibreculture:: mailinglist for australasian
> ::critical internet theory, culture and research
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