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125 lines
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125 lines
7.2 KiB
HTML
<HTML>
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<TITLE>T E X T F I L E S</TITLE>
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<B>THERE'S ANARCHY AND THEN THERE'S ANARCHY</B>
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<P>
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I recieved a piece of e-mail from a textfiles.com user going by the nom de plume
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of "Captain Anarchy", asking me to help stop the common misperception of the word
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"Anarchy" in the BBS and Internet worlds. I initially balked at the idea, but as
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time goes on, I do suppose there's room for casual observers to get the wrong idea,
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so let's talk about it.
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<P>
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Textfiles.com has an "Anarchy" section, wherein there are a very large range of
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files dealing with destruction,
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<A HREF="http://www.textfiles.com/anarchy/MISCHIEF/doa8.txt">mischief</A>,
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mayhem, and general troublemaking. In
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some cases, the writers simply give you very large lists of
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<A HREF="http://www.textfiles.com/anarchy/MISCHIEF/nitephun.txt">horrible things to
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do to the neighborhood around you</A>, while others go as far as listing ingredients
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for incendiaries they wish you to build (and which any reasonable person would
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never do). Throughout this section, the writers will often refer to themselves
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as "Anarchists" and what they're practicing as "Anarchy".
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<P>
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In his book "The Hacker Crackdown", author Bruce Sterling touches on the heavy
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preponderance of these destructive textfiles and is at a loss to explain them
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beyond an interest by Hackers in "Forbidden Knowledge", and leaves it with a pretty
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clever twist about this desire to trade information representing a shift
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in society, and so on.
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<P>
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Personally, I believe it to be an expression of power. If you read into them,
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these files represent <A HREF="http://www.textfiles.com/humor/atombomb.hum">huge
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acts of force</A> that the typical young teenager might
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not personally be able to experience, but through the typical ups and downs
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of these painful years, might want to. Or at least know they could if they
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really wanted to. Handling the pressures of teenage years are that much easier
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if you think you know more than you're supposed to.
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<P>
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As I've mentioned in a speech I gave at DEFCON in 1998, textfiles can trace
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their existence back to Abbie Hoffman and the
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<A HREF="http://www.textfiles.com/phreak/yipl.phk">Youth International Party
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Line</A>,
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which became the
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<A HREF="http://www.textfiles.com/phreak/tap.txt">Technological Assistance
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Party (TAP)</A> and which gave way to
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2600 Magazine in the early 1980s. Abbie Hoffman's "Steal This Book" reads with
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all the humor, prodding, profanity and clear-eyed instructions of the best
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of the later BBS-era textfiles. Abbie, however, was one of the most celebrated
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of the protesting, government-shaking youths of the time, and his book goes
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far beyond mere instructions to a sort of manifesto of how to bring about the
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destruction of this oppressive state atmosphere he saw crushing the country.
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<P>
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Somehow, in the move from the revolutionary thoughts of the 1960's through to
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the technology explosion of the 1980's, these pure ingredient lists of wanton
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destruction and danger got linked and wrapped up with the idea of protest and
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fighting against the
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<A HREF="http://www.textfiles.com/politics/bookban.txt">oppressive all-powerful
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state</A>, and someone decided to
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refer to them as "Anarchy" files.
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<P>
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I won't pretend to be an expert, or even a dabbling authority on the concept of
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Anarchy as a political system. As I understand it from my days of working as an
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artist for the Zine known as "Factsheet Five", Anarchy as a political system is
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an attempt to keep out a vast, overseeing government, and instead focus on the
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cooperation of smaller collectives towards an ideal society. Some anarchists wish
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for the abolition of all government, replacing it with a shared authority by
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these smaller collectives, while others have tried to bring Anarchist ideas and
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approaches to the current systems of government.
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<P>
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The point is, the concept of "Anarchy" as portrayed in these files is not in
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any way related to these political movements, which exist on their own merits.
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The dictionary definition of Anarchy, which is "An Absence of Government", may
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or may not be an ideal situation, but it's honestly not a part of the tone and
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ideas of the writers of these textfiles. If you feel like taking a real logical
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stretch, you might be able to argue that the files advocate the destruction of
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the current order to leave a vacuum of power. Then, this vacuum of power could
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be filled with a more radical/preferable system of governing or self-governing.
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How this could possibly be achieved by
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<A HREF="http://www.textfiles.com/anarchy/MISCHIEF/mcdonld.ana">screwing with the
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ketchup packets of a McDonalds</A>, of course, is beyond me.
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<P>
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I often recieve correpondence from
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<A HREF="http://www.textfiles.com/humor/COMPUTER/warbitch.hum">people who wrote
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these files</A>. More often than
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not, these writers are actually rather embarassed at their writings and ask me
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if it's entirely necessary for them to be still online. I don't believe in
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burying the past, but I do share their concern about two groups taking these
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files seriously: Young minds who think that this sort of explosives construction
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actually happened years ago and they just missed the fun, and groups of
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self-righteous "Universal Parents" who might point to these collections of files
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as serious attempts to foment revolution or scar the minds of the young. Both
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of these groups are entirely misguided.
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<P>
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It might need to be said, if you've previously thought otherwise, that the
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1980's were not a time of wanton, spectacular explosions raining down from
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suburban neighborhoods all across the country. While no doubt people blew
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things up, it wasn't the natural order of things and people were no doubt
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arrested or fined heavily for doing so. No great social change took place as
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a result of criminal mischief. There have been some issues with the massive
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amounts of corporate mergers, however. We're still feeling the effects of
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that. Otherwise, pretty smooth sailing.
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<P>
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As for the idea that this collection exists in some way to poison the minds
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of youth, well, these files were WRITTEN by youth. Even a cursory view of the
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files reveal all the badly-written phrases, poor spelling, and
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<A HREF="http://www.textfiles.com/anarchy/MISCHIEF/phunatdi.ana">near-myopic
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perspective</A> of teenage authors going for shock value or to wave the biggest
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stick in the playground. These are hardly the tools used by predators
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to ensnare children; much preferable ones are the uniforms of authority or
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the latest editions of school textbooks.
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<P>
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If the idea of learning more about Anarchy as a system of government interests
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you, then simply use a search engine to find pages entitled
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"<A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1931/">ANARCHY FAQ</A>" or
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"ANARCHY SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT" and see what pops back at you. It probably
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won't mention
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<A HREF="http://www.textfiles.com/anarchy/MISCHIEF/projects.txt">smashing mailboxes</A>
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anywhere in it.
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<P>
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- Jason Scott<BR>
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January, 2001
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