ANTI-MYSPACE

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Anti-MySpace MANIFESTO-----

A Clarion Call to the Disaffected and the Alienated. Somehow it all began with Friendster- wait; actually it started with AOL and Instant Messaging programs (AIM, Yahoo, MSN, etc.). Somewhere along the way – maybe in the late 90s – people began gaining access to the internet and we were bombarded with lol’s, bbl’s, and ttyl’s. A disjuncture emerged and everyone seemed to cleave people into either real life friends or “online friends”. People stopped living in the real world and stopped speaking in complete phrases. Friendster was the next step. For the first time a network appeared that could unite online friends with different internet service providers into a single network complete with profiles and links to friends of your friends and their friends, too. Then MySpace emerged. Silicon Valley’s brainchildren, smiling grad students with sandals and cargo pants, took Friendster to the next level, adding accessories, bells, whistles and suddenly everyone was there. Well, at first there weren’t too many people there. Then it exploded and Tom et al sold their creation to Rupert Murdoch (the conservative billionaire who owns and runs FoxNews, the de jure mouthpiece for the Republican Party and the religious right). That’s who owns this medium, in case you didn’t know. MySpace isn’t an independent or secure or even remotely confidential service. Its data is often subpoenaed by law enforcement and by Homeland Security. A twelve year old made an idiotic statement about the president and was tracked down and hauled out of his home in shackles. If you’re one of the 14 million new users for this month or any other, please be advised: MySpace is not your friend. It’s time that I put some space between MySpace and your space; between experience and keyboard mouse monitor (-ing). And it is all about monitoring through screens plugged into solitude and darkened rooms. The illuminating light can’t enlighten- it only atomizes and reinforces your isolation and alienation. You can amass 1,000,000 MySpace friends and still remain alone in life. You can subscribe to every blog and still there are people eating out of dumpsters for survival. It’s not real- it denies reality through sleek graphics and hip applications. Any website is a tangled nest of html codes and 00110100101110111’s that come together at your mouse-click. MySpace is not real. It’s a mathematical equation on a monitor and you’ve stopped living when updating and MySpacing is more important than going out and meeting people on the street. Capitalism alienates us during our work time and now we voluntarily continue the alienation process in our free time. Instead of building working class culture and activist networks we reply to bulletin surveys. Instead of street protests we affix a “Dump Bush” logo on our pages and think we’re doing something. Even devout leftists create gossip, cliques and chatter and get nothing done. MySpace is not your space - the only real MySpace is the miles of nerves, synapses and chemicals in your own brain- that’s the one thing truly mine and yours. There will never be “MySpace- a place for everyone” until we kick the rotting edifice of this system and its economic form to the ground in a stinking heap of wreckage. Until the insurgency gains urgency and the mouse and keyboard are in the rubble, there is no free space. Revolution is the new MySpace. Everyone these days lists FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions) – even insurgents – because the average person is such a mind-numbed idiot that a FAQ list eliminates hundreds of ridiculous emails and phone calls. FAQ: “So, like, if you hate MySpace so much, why are you on it? Aren’t you, like, supporting it by having a page or something?” [the person who asked this has, it should be noted, 12 digital photos of herself in front of a mirror on her profile]. Answer: We are using the site as a medium for promoting anti-MySpace consciousness and for building an anti-MySpace consensus. If I were, for example, waging revolutionary, armed struggle against the capitalist system and chose to use dynamite manufactured by a capitalist corporation for an individual attack, would you accuse me of supporting capitalism? The source of the dynamite ceases to matter when it is harnessed in violent struggle against the hegemonic order. It is the end- not the means or even the manufacturer/source of the means that matters. If you are a bit slow I can tie the strings together for you as follows: we are using MySpace to build a movement that will destroy MySpace and eventually capitalism. We are not “MySpacers”. Using the system to smash the system is underground guerrilla strategy; it is not supporting the system. If you can't understand this then maybe you ought to go back to updating your profile with self-portrait or mirror pics. If you are the type of person to draw a sign and to photograph yourself holding it then we can say that you will be completely useless to our cause and should just head to the top right and "x" yourself off of this page for the good of all involved. Go check your "New Friend Requests" (if you even have any) or get a "pimped out" html upgrade, you bleating sheep. We are fighting to break disaffected youths from internet apathy. We are building a working class movement to unseat and destroy the ruling class. We fight for a day when a person will not have to work three jobs to get by; for a day when the color of someone’s skin or the class they were born into is not a basis for oppression by elites. Ninety years ago, ten days and a movement shook the world to its core. We are the great-grandsons of 1917 and MySpace is our Petrograd. Additional Theory: MySpace and Cultural Hegemony – Hegemonic theory is complex; for the purposes of this forum I will distill it into the following formula: capitalism uses its cultural hegemony to create false consciousness in our class that leads us to act and think in ways that support the capitalist system – they make us buy into something that is not in our best interests. Because in American society many of the instruments of repression are subtle ones (with the exception of Patriot Act and other direct attacks) we often do not see what is going on. MySpace advertises to us on a constant basis; it encourages consumerism and apathy, it elevates teenage emo drama beyond the needs of our class. MySpace is the grooming shop for the future running dogs of capitalism. It is addictive, obsessive and a distraction from core issues. We seek to pull these disaffected elements from the grip of Rupert Murdoch, Tom and the ruling class. We do not want you to pass smoothly into the consumer class. We do not want you to buy into that which the ruling class uses against working people. We do not want you to absorb their superstructures. We want you to be free. Molotov cocktails and grenades are the new Bulletins and blogs. Revolution is the new MySpace; MySpace is the new Petrograd and 2007 is the new 1917. Join us!