LDD Sermon #5

[Cain]

If you do not have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.
- Luke 22:36, attributed to Jesus

The more guilty and villainous the ruler is and the further he goes in open abuse of his unlimited wrongful authority, the more he will leave room for hope that the people will at last...put an end forever to so violent and irrational a form of government.
,Äî Vittorio Alfieri, from Della Tirannide, Vol. II, Chap. 7

Attacks must be answered. An assertion unanswered is an assertion agreed to.
,Äî Geoff Garin



All right, so you want to know what to do?  Well, going around asking people what you should be doing is probably half of the problem, but thats for another time.

Lets lay the scenery out:  The crowning achievement of the Enlightenment era, the Constitution, is effectively dead in the water, power transferred to the executive in an outright mockery of everything a republic stands for.  Haebus Corpus doesn't exist if someone shouts the words ,Äúterrorist,Äù and you may very well end up in a simulated drown scenario until you ,Äúadmit,Äù to your crimes.

Across the pond, the mother of Parliaments is gearing up to surrender its power to an already despotic leadership.  Evidence gathered by torture is permissible as evidence, free speech has been effectively destroyed and kidnap is a standard procedure used against legitimate civil dissent, if you accept no-one should be in prison for more than 24 hours without charge, anyway.  15 years after the Soviet camps were cleared, the Americans were allowed to build their Gulags in Eastern Europe.

And now you want to do something.

Some would say ,Äúget stuffed,Äù and I would certainly be inclined to.  People have been hollering about this crap for years and only now you've realized the problems?  Police states are built by small steps, as to remove the problems of a backlash.  But as much fun as gloating is, it doesn't actually do much, except perhaps give you the warm glow of satisfaction that will keep you warm at night in your open air cell.

So I'm presenting my ideas, for what they're worth.  I can sum it up in one word, then go on to explain.  The word is quite simple: subversion, subversion subversion.

What is subversion?  Nothing less than the total undermining of the current social and political landscape.  The entire world view of the current majority must be shattered, so that the broken shards can be used in building a better tomorrow.

But I promise more than mere words.  I promise ideas that can be put into practice, to achieve this most lofty of goals.  That was why I changed my Discordian writing style, to go from bitching to constructive and useful advice, after all.

First thing is first, we cannot afford to act alone.  There are simply not enough Discordians (who call themselves Discordians) who can actually do much.  Latent Discordians are another matter...but you have to find them first.  So its going to involve working with other groups.  Thats to say, the Subgenii who aren't too jaded to fight the Con, the Libertarians, Anarchists, Cyberpunks...hell, anyone who feels they are losing out due to the current situation and wants a change.  There isn't  a place for ideological purity in this revolt...Find a group that has a localized grudge and show them the best way of getting back at the current situation.

We gotta actually start talking to these groups, either as individuals or as groups.  Unless we can chat tactics with them, there is a good chance they will settle for a lame ass protest or something.  It also means we cannot figure out what is actually working out there.  With multiple groups, all doing multiple things and getting multiple levels of success, it quickly becomes clear what is working and what is not.  When you start to see good returns on investment into your subversion, you know you're onto a winner combination.  Also, the potential of several small groups working together can be in fact more effective than one individual group with a large scale subversion (I'll add Open Source Chaos on the end of this to illustrate this more*).

Subversion can be interchangeable with disruption, in my mind.  Terrorism is often seen as the ultimate form of subversion, not for the violence it causes but because of the creation of a parallel society.  Secret societies in the past were similar, such as the Triads and Freemasons.  Globalization is the buzzword of the 21st century, but it has a flipside in the black economy, as now secret groups use modern technology and cross borders in order to create a fast buck.  They disrupt the profits of the corporate structures that underpin the modern economy.  Of course, this is just one example.  Corporate structures are also part of the larger economic process of the area in which they are situated.  A subversion ,Äútax,Äù caused by disruption would upset the economic equilibrium of the city and could force a city to the brink of total civil disorder (the estimated cost for this in New York would be $40 billion, for example.  While a large number, NY lost a billion a day due to the 2003 power blackout).

Systems disruption is something I can talk about for ages.  The simple fact is that most systems in the modern world are based on other systems and these are invariably centralized.  This holds true from everything to power stations to social dynamics.  To quote that strategic master, Robert Green,  you should strike at the shepard in order to make the sheep scatter.  By picking a high profile target and successfully undermining them, you can collapse an entire structure.  By attacking a high-load node (something where a lot of something passes through) the result can be a cascading failure that spreads quickly and with devastation throughout an entire network.

I can go on and on (and will, given the chance), but the real problem is kicking this whole thing off.  This is a giant gunpowder keg here, all it needs is a fuse to make it go off....what is that fuse?  A plausible promise following a successful subversion.  Something simple like ,Äúwe can rid America of these assholes who care nothing for our rights,Äù.  Once you've done that, shown that you've done it and bragged repeatedly about it in the right (wrong?) circles, then the process starts.

I won't pretend that this is easy.  Its not.  It will involve inventiveness, patience and a good deal of courage.  It will be hard, unrewarding in the start and will involve a whole new way of thinking, one I've only begun to grasp myself.  But it is possible and it can be done.  Lets show them that we know what Discord is and how to use it.  Lets undermine these bastards and take back what is ours.







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*Open Source Chaos:  Building on O:MF

The decentralized, and seemingly chaotic guerrilla war in Iraq demonstrates a pattern that will likely serve as a model for next generation terrorists. This pattern shows a level of learning, activity, and success similar to what we see in the open source software community. I say we apply it to the guerrilla warfare of the mind and paradigms.

Release early and often.  Try new forms of attacks against different types of targets early and often. Don,Äôt wait for a perfect plan.

Given a large enough pool of co-developers, any difficult problem will be seen as obvious by someone, and solved. Eventually some participant of the bazaar will find a way to disrupt a particularly difficult target. All you need to do is copy the process they used.

Your co-developers (beta-testers) are your most valuable resource.  The other guerrilla networks in the bazaar are your most valuable allies. They will innovate on your plans, swarm on weaknesses you identify, and protect you by creating system noise.

Recognize good ideas from your co-developers. Simple attacks that have immediate and far-reaching impact should be adopted.

Perfection is achieved when there is nothing left to take away (simplicity). The easier the attack is, the more easily it will be adopted. Complexity prevents swarming that both amplifies and protects.

Tools are often used in unexpected ways.  An attack method can often find reuse in unexpected ways.

Swarms vs. single group activity.  The bazaar offers the potential of many smaller attacks that can in aggregate have an impact equal to several large attacks. Many hands make light work. Combined with system leverage, this could reduce a nation to economic chaos in short order.

Rapid innovation. The bazaar's demonstrated ability to provide rapid innovatation makes defense much extremely difficult. Rather than a single 9/11 style attack, we may see small attacks (less planning and training, fewer people, less support) against a plethora of targets. With a sufficient number of guerrilla networks unearthing vulnerabilities (particularly ones with system's leverage), other forces will likely be outmatched.

These are the tools of the next wave of military and programming thinking. We can adapt, take these tools and put them to use. But it will require the Open Source Chaos bazaar to work.  There will need to be more sticking together than apart.

We can work together as small co-operating groups, without turning into some organized official mess. Swapping ideas, running tests, making up mndfucks on the fly and applying them to different situations. Acting in concert and cooperation in order to do what we want more effectively.  That is the aim. Or otherwise why do mindfucks at all, other than for your own amusement?  You might as well go back to your TV sets and tabloid magazines.

[Thurnez Isa]

if your talking about subversion, or going to war without a proclaimation I  would add two to these

Espionage "Spys are usefull everywhere" Sun Tzu and Reconaissance "The first rule of maneuvering... is to send out scouts for reconaissance" Liu Ji
and
Organization or Formation "Strength and weakeness is only a matter of formation" Sun Tzu

[hunter s.durden]

Bump!

Action, not just observing.
Something i've been reaching at in my posts, but never so eloquent as this.

But I promise more than mere words. I promise ideas that can be put into practice, to achieve this most lofty of goals. That was why I changed my Discordian writing style, to go from bitching to constructive and useful advice, after all.

First thing is first, we cannot afford to act alone. There are simply not enough Discordians (who call themselves Discordians) who can actually do much. Latent Discordians are another matter...but you have to find them first. So its going to involve working with other groups. Thats to say, the Subgenii who aren't too jaded to fight the Con, the Libertarians, Anarchists, Cyberpunks...hell, anyone who feels they are losing out due to the current situation and wants a change. There isn't a place for ideological purity in this revolt...Find a group that has a localized grudge and show them the best way of getting back at the current situation.

These were the ideas I found to be most relevant.

[Random Probability]

I would politely suggest trying something different.

Doing things that make them think are doomed to failure; they are cabbages.  It is not unlike pissing in the ocean; you get a warm feeling, but you're the only one who notices.

Ditto with violence.  I have noticed that acts of terrorism perpetrated in western nations leads only to an increase in the police state.  I have discussed this trend with military colleagues who work in that field and gotten nothing but dirty looks.  It isn't that they [my friends] are bad people, it's just that they are the jackboot-wearing, shotgun-totting tools of Greyface.  They like the police state.  They want people to get out of line.

For reference please listen to Suicidal Tendancies song, "I wanna be a fascist pig".  'nuff said.

On a more pertinent note, I think what is needed here is an extremely in-depth study of this Machine with particular emphasis on what causes are known to break it.  A cursory (and intuitive) study of the basic problem leads me to an unpalatable conclusion; towit: the only thing that will bring this social pardigm to its knees is the judicious reallocation of money, and lots of it.

Taking the New York City idea a bit farther, I would posit that the Dark Ages are only a light switch away (if you get my meaning).

[P3nT4gR4m]

Satire IMO has always been more effective than throwing molotovs through windows. The machine is patently fucking ridiculous and, as such, it can't stand up to the power of ridicule. Success may lie in exploring new ways to make it seem even more obviously ridiculous, even more loudly.