Book Review - Alongside Night

Alongside Night is the first novel published by author Joesph Neil Shulman, about the formation of an agorist anarchist society in America during a severe economic crisis. To call this novel simplistic is somewhat understated, but never the less, the novel is suitable for young adults with little to no understanding of anarchism or agorist principles.

The story itself is fast paced, but fails to deliever on important and vital details on social aspects of the society. However, the novel does give a thorough explanation of economic agorism.

The Revolutionary Agorist Cadre is a group of anarcho-capitalists' who have managed to form a society within a society during the demise of the American economy. Possessing gold (or counter-currency) is an offence, (mimicked in real life by the New Hampshire Liberty Dollar), and inflation is so high that parallels can only be drawn to the current economic crisis in Zimbabwe where inflation runs at 100,000% a year. Agorist currency is the gold standard, or European currency unaffected by inflation.

Members of the cadre are required to sign a contract:-

"Arbitration shall enforce the law of the contract to effectuate its purposes, and shall decide the issues by the application of reason to the facts under the guidance of the Law of Equal Liberty (each has the right to do with his/ her own what he/she wishes so long as he/she does not forcibly interfere with the equal right of another)."

The contract called the Submission to Arbitrate enables business between members for the economic benefits of both parties under the proviso that no harm or force must come between them, less they be held accountable by the arbitration committee. This contract is meant to serve as an alternative to mafia tactics (common among underground societies) for those who fail to meet their agreed upon responsibilities. The arbitration committee uses economic sanctions to maintain order within the Agorist Cadre, who retain control of the nation un-surprisingly through the threat of military force, namely nuclear weapons. No doubt exactly what would be required in real life.

However, there are more questions raised than answered in Alongside Night as to how exactly this agorist utopia would function. In terms of economic considerations, the novel is quite explicit, while other more social concerns are ignored. "Laissez-faire" or free market is used in the novel by cadre members as a greeting, and no doubt used as repetitive mind control in the novel, forgetting that the free market is not an end in itself, as not all considerations are economic. Free market demand can include prostitution and narcotics, which when left un-regulated, presume ably is left to the arbitration committee to sort out. But what are the long term impacts of the arbitration committee? Is it the equivalent to legal precedent?

Further, the idea of arbitration is only valid when the committee for arbitration is separated from the cadre to ensure integrity. How in practise would this work, and what procedure is in effect to stop the wealth of the nation becoming concentrated into the hands of a few? What will be used to stop the formation of cartels if the only sanctions are economic, and cartels can afford the inconvenience of fees? We are left to ponder these issues for ourselves.

One of these social examples sees our female hero Lorimer witness an orgy in the cadre complex, which seems to fit in with agorist principle. "Live and Let Live". It reminds me of an article I read from the New Right - The Tyranny of Individualism - where at the Love Parade in San Francisco, men can be seen walking around the streets masturbating. Personally, I can't accept this sexual "free market" proposed by Shulman in Alongside Night, but I respect the position of not forcing my "prudish" manner onto those who would want such a free market. For these reasons, I will accept the economic agorist principle, but for social considerations, I will accept a more national anarchist approach. That is, community members who wish to have a sexual free market with on the street masturbating, will only be able to do so without offending the right of conservative anarchists like myself if they are segregated into their own communities, with trade relationships between them.

All in all the book is worth a read.

Corporate Jamming to pop culture

Corporate jamming is the exact opposite of culture jamming, where the use of sub or underground cultural movements are reinvented for the purposes of corporate propaganda and mass consumerism, thereby co-opting the sub culture to pop culture.

Here's a few examples;

Radio Rentals

"C'mon Australia join the rental revolution!"

Through the overuse of terms which would normally be used by fringe political groups like anarchists and communists, the mainstream population have become complacent and nonchalant with the term "revolution", thereby removing any impact the term would otherwise have on a persons life.

Telstra

Check out the commercial above, it's an old one, but the concept is still valid. Telstra are one of the best corporate jammers I've seen so far. They take uplifting alternative music (that is, music that is played on triple J), alternative/ abstract art (phones in trees and in the freezer) and play upon cultural stereotypes (get an ice cream on a hot summers day) to "corporate jam". Then there is the message "spread the good stuff", which is really the co-opting of new age spiritualism "share positive energy and affirmation". Subtle and effective.

Three Mobile Phones

"#1 Save on deodorant - apply it while at the supermarket."

Cop-opting anarchist alternative lifestyle- and marketing it to students.

Just Jeans

The latest jeans west ad looks like a music video (not that that's a cultural thing), but it does show the move from corporate "art" to corporate advertising.

update: Modern Roofing ad - the company is selling solar panels to be installed on the roofs of houses. Two black birds are used for back and forth between each other to sell the product (subtle mind control that the company and/or product is environmentally friendly). One of the birds states as a catch phrase at the end

"Power to the people"

Culture jamming or sniggling is a resistance movement to cultural hegemony and the homogenous nature of popular culture, executed by means of public activism or guerrilla communication. It often entails transforming mass media to produce ironic or satirical commentary about itself, using the original medium's communication method. Furthermore, culture jamming is based on the idea that advertising is little more than propaganda for established interests, and that there is a lack of an available means for alternative expression in industrialized nations.

Culture jamming is very much like the stuff the guys got up to in Fight Club, below are some URLS worth checking out for examples.

http://theyesmen.org/

http://www.abrupt.org/CJ/
http://www.sniggle.net/
http://www.why-war.com/encyclopedia/weapons/culture_jamming/
http://bloggreen.wordpress.com/2006/01/10/nice-example-of-culture-jamming-5/

The Business of Abortion

The abortion industry has been estimated to be worth $450 million to $1 billion annually by the wall street journal.

These figures do no include the financial gain in the trading of aborted biological material. In 1999 evidence came to light that abortionists were selling body parts from aborted babies for use in medical research and transplants.

CNS reports that experiments using human/animal hybrid mice, bred to have no immune systems, and injected with tissue and cells from aborted children, have been paid for with U.S federal funds for more than twenty years.

The National Cancer Institute explains that "immature human" immune tissues and/or immune cells are injected or implanted into these mice that are unable to reject the tissue. But CNS reveals that "immature" is a euphemism for tissue obtained from aborted children or "abortuses".Much of the foetal tissue comes from late-term abortions committed at 17-23 weeks' gestation. CNS quotes one 2005 study, published in the journal Blood said, "Mice were surgically implanted with human bone chips of fetal femur or tibia from 19- to 23-week gestation human abortuses ...."

A search on the term "human abortuses" reveals over 34,000 hits, many of which link to medical research studies showing the use of tissue from either "spontaneous" or "elective" abortions

Dr. Joseph Bryant, director of animal research at the University of Maryland's Institute of Human Virology told CNS the immune deficient mice have "been something of a godsend for modern-day research."

In 2002 it was revealed that major pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, Novartis, Schering-Plough, Glaxo SmithKline, Aventis Pasteur and the NIH purchased licensing agreements to a patented designer cell line developed with aborted baby tissue. The same year, it was revealed that in Australia, embryonic stem cells were being grown on "feeder layers" made up of fetal tissue from aborted children.

Fetal-tissue harvesting is a very lucrative industry, and just a small percentage of research could yield huge profits. Billions are involved in fetal-tissue research and harvesting, and the federal government participates in it in a big way. But it's also very shielded, and one has to try to understand the everydayness of it - - the foundational step in the process of abortion and fetal harvesting.

Statistics suggest that 26% of pregnancies are aborted, which accounts for about 46 million abortions (legal and otherwise) annually.

References
[1] http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/nov/07113008.html
[2] http://www.pregnantpause.org/abort/partexpl.htm
[3]http://www.prochoiceactionnetwork-canada.org/articles/spreadinghatred.shtml
[4] http://www.nrlc.org/Baby_Parts/omeara.html
[5] http://anti-abortion.info/

Today the nation says we're Sorry

Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

The Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd made an official apology to the Indigenous people of Australia for the forced removal of children from their families, who were removed for no other reason than their genetics - they were half-castes. The policy was one of genocide, forced assimilation, and the destruction of an ancient culture.

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

Kevin Rudd made the apology today on behalf of himself, the Australian Government and the Australian Parliament, unequivocally. His apology was warmly received by the stolen generation and their families and all those effected by the policies of the previous Government.

However, the opposition leader Dr. Brendan Nelson who gave his full and unrelenting support for this new chapter in history made comments which were poorly received, with people booing and turing their backs, perhaps more to do with the timing of the comments rather than the comments themselves.

Whether Australian by birth or immigration, each one of us has a duty to understand and respect what has been done in our name. In most cases, we do with great pride, but in others it is with shame.

Personally, I liked what Brendan Nelson had to say (the comment above is almost exactly the same as what I've said in previous posts) but it was also complementary in its contrast with what the Prime Minister had to say. Kevin Rudd's speech was directed toward the Aboriginal people, an apology - long overdue with no hesitation.

While Brendan Nelsons speech was directed at those Australians who haven’t quite jumped on board the reconciliation bandwagon. I thought it was appropriate for the audience. He was raw, real and gritty. He gave details not just of the injustices of white men to Indigenous people, but also of crimes unpunished by Indigenous against their own.

He described how mothers were thrown out of a police vehicle while their daughters screaming in the back were taken interstate to institutions never to see their families again. Dr Nelson also described how the policy of removing children from abuse was and still is a sound policy. I have to agree, and while as an Anarchist I don't support the Government intervention, I am in mixed minds about the remedy for children suffering physical and sexual abuse. These sorts of abuses are continuing in Aboriginal communities and need rectifying. It's not an easy or comfortable issue; it's gritty and it's real.

Perhaps these abuses continue in Aboriginal communities because of a lack of on our part of wanting to get involved - incase we repeat past mistakes. Perhaps. Perhaps the abuses originated by the Indigenous communities because of the Government interventions, because of a lack of identity and connectedness to who they are, their community and each other.

Ultimately, what Dr Nelson said was true, inappropriate for the situation, as tact and courtesy can certainly go a long way. Comments which would have been better received a few days from now, while celebrations of positive feelings of reconciliation flow from the broader Australian community.

When giving an apology (and in any relationship with friends, family or coworkers), we all know you give it without caveats, else it's not really an apology. But, today was more than an apology, it was about a way forward. In doing so, we need mutual responsibility, and that's what i'm taking from Brenden Nelsons' speech.

All in all I am happy for the Aboriginal and Torres Stait Islander community that finally, they have an aknowledgement of what has happened to them in the past. Ultimately, instead of a compensation fund for individual victims of the stolen generation, I would like to see the Australian Government make resistutions by giving back land to the Aboriginal people. Generally, the Aboriginal community does not understand money - it's not in their culture (except for those who have assimilated). No, the Aboriginal people want and understand land, and it's their land that should be restitution.