Another Campus-Homeland Security Upgrade

Two weeks ago it was the National Notification Network. This week it's the Wide-Area Broadcast System. Five of these towers emerged within the last month and today security technicians were testing their amplification power. I spend little time on the campus, but since I was there I snapped this photo.

"BEEEEP. This is a test of the Emergency Wide-Area Broadcast System!" the loudspeaker blared off and on. Throughout the entire campus you could hear infrequent beeps and glitches from the goofy looking machines. Students walking by got the shit scared out of them as the towers went off without warning.

No student body or faculty to my knowledge voted (or at the very least discussed) this new security apparatus. It's only been brought to our attention as something "the campus" is doing now. And of course our student newspaper cares more about poorly-written pickup lines than these issues. They could ask questions like, where is the Homeland Security money coming from (ahem), what the fuck are these machines doing here, why the fuck are you doing this without our consent, etc etc. But they won't. And look how easily it was to install an entirely new campus environment before our eyes.

I wonder if our school will buy one of these soon. Data-mining equipment like the kind provided by Narus and its sister corporations in the security industrial complex are the logical next-step in the "emergency preparedness" process. A campus environment, with all its sensitive digital information, is highly vulnerable to denial-of-service attacks and other breaches. So the argument goes, we need more black boxes! Just as "emergency preparedness" is a euphemism for police state, so "lawful interception" is a euphemism for domestic spying. Hundreds of high speed internet offices already set that up in the United States without anyone's consent or notification.

Toward Unitary Urbanism

There should be free parties in city parks every weekend.

I have anecdotal evidence supporting my thesis. The Decibel party in Seattle offered a free party in Volunteer Park as alternative to expensive parties downtown. Decibel was a 4-day party showcasing some of my favorite EDM artists - they spun minimal, dub, glitch, and all sorts of funky beats in between. (Look at the full list of all the artists.) Most of the artists played inside for a hefty fee (Carl Craig for $25 at the door), but a few of them played outside in parks absolutely for free.

Some local and West Coast Djs wanted to give Seattle a free show and that was excellent. Two from the Bay-Area (edIT and Boreta) played for free their West Coast "glitch" underground flavor. Here is a sample of their music:

I don't want to take the unitary urbanist thesis too far, but how can I resist? The status quo urbanism is a compartmentalized way to think about a city's surroundings, where "art" is detached from the rest of life. In that view, "art" is supposed to stay inside artist's lofts or inside museums. And increasingly, art is being pushed back into private spaces and out of public spaces. From this I suppose we can conclude that public art has negative aesthetic effect on some peoples' "indifference curves". These people, typically, we call "squares". Status quo urbanism is square urbanism.

It's unfortunate that square values have triumphed over unitary values in public discourse (in the City of Seattle and elsewhere). The Capitol Hill neighborhood in Seattle has seen an increase in art, dance, and "hip" scenes in recent years. But the squares are fighting back with socio-economic status and privilege as a way to limit everyone else's fun. In the unitary urbanist ideal, an urban environment is blended so much with work and play that you cannot tell where function ends and where play begins.

"A unitary urbanism — the synthesis we call for, incorporating arts and technologies — must be created in accordance with new values of life, values which we now need to distinguish and disseminate. . . . "

- Gil J Wolman “La plate-forme d’Alba” originally appeared in Potlatch: Information Bulletin of the Lettrist International #27 (Paris, 2 November 1956)

Example of Cops Hating Freedom

This is a t-shirt that was created by the Denver Police Protective Association, the Denver police union. The grinning pig on the shirt is wearing a hat with a crossed-out number "68," a reference to one of the Denver-based activist organizations - called Recreate 68 - which had planned demonstrations for an entire year and had several public battles over free speech and zoning issues. Glen Spagnulo from Recreate 68 said the following about the Denver security apparatus.

"The people of Denver were assured by the city that it would respect First Amendment rights during the DNC, and that that police officers were being trained to do so. The actions of police during the DNC, which involved numerous violations of people's right to freedom of speech and assembly, put the lie to those promises."

The "detective" who created these tasteless shirts, named Nick Rogers, said he hasn't received any complaints about the t-shirt, which were given to the police for free and thousands more are being sold to supporters who love to spread fascist propaganda. He said police often issue T-shirts to commemorate big events. Watch this video that shows Miami police shooting protesters in the face and then laughing maniacally and congratulating each other about it afterwards.

Why would you trust police to serve your neighborhoods, or prowl your schools, or invade your communities? What about testifying in court against minorities, leftists, or undesirables? Why would you trust them with a monopoly on assault weapons and state-legitimized use of force?


They haven't heard any complaints yet.

Police Headquarters
1331 Cherokee St.
Denver, CO 80204
720-913-2000

And What About Tomorrow? An Anarchist Response to "Battle in Seattle"

Two weeks ago I watched the opening of "Battle in Seattle" - the Hollywood film about the WTO protest - at the Neptune Theater in Seattle. I also fliered the movie-going audience with information about the PepperSpray film collective. We were at the film showing because some of the people in the collective participated in the WTO protest. It's how the film collective actually got started. Here is a pamphlet that anarchists have been passing around at the screenings too. I really liked the film and was inspired by it, but it's true that the filmmaker violence-bated the anarchists. Here is a quote from Crimethinc's Screenwreckers Guild:

"The Battle in Seattle website repeatedly belittles anarchists as a “small fringe group” who “managed to steal the show” while focusing only on anarchist participation in the black bloc. Actually, anarchists were involved in all different aspects of the WTO protests including lockdowns, making puppets and cooking for Food Not Bombs. The Direct Action Network, (the group who shaped the protests), was founded and operated based on the anarchist principles of horizontal and non-hierarchical organizing. The media’s attempts to pigeon hole anarchists as “violent” thugs was simply an effort to discredit the strength of anarchist organizing and the successes of direct action."

Pepperspray Productions is also credited in the film because some of them in Seattle organized protester extras for the film.

http://dead-city.org/whatabouttomorrow-print.pdf

Optimism and Pessimism

Why believe in “optimism” rather than “pessimism”?

What if optimism is naively leading you to absurd conclusions? Or perhaps there’s a better way of doing something and if only you could stop what you are doing now and become pessimistic about it would you realize this. Realize what exactly? An instinctual urge to view negative possibilities as more realistic than positive ones? Wait, don't confuse “pessimism” with “resignationism”, like Schopenhauer did, and don't confuse “laughing” with “optimism”.

There are pessimistic laughers too, my favorite kind.

Suggested reading:

Nietzsche. The Birth of Tragedy, Attempt at a Self-Criticism. §6 (click here.)

Nobody '08, Smash the State!

Not that I advocate spectacular politics, but you can listen to the Republican-Democrat debates tonight on NPR's live audio stream, or you can watch it on CNN's live video stream.

NPR also has a nice section that is already attempting to 'fact check' the remarks of senators McCain and Obama. The story of tonight's debate can be summarized in the following way.

What they're doing:



And what we're doing: