hydrarchist writes:
"Towards an ‘Army of Ideas’—
Oppositional Intellect & The Bad Frontier
J. J. King
[...] you strive to take away my livelihood, and the liberty of this poor weak frame of my body of flesh, which is my house I dwell in for a time; but I strive to cast down your kingdom of darkness, and to open hell gates, and to break the devil’s bonds asunder wherewith you are tied, that you my enemies may live in peace; and that is all the harm I would have you to have.
Gerrard Winstanley[1]
By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.
William Shakespeare
Introduction
To commence anecdotally: I recently ecountered, uncoincidentally in a part of London that has over the last five to seven years been gentrified beyond anything but the barest degree of recognition, in a cafe that has got itself up in some sort of impression of a souk, and in which coiffed quasi-bohos lounge with lattes and smouldering joints, a young ‘cracker’ who had until recently been part of a pirate community which took part both in the ‘chipping’ of mobile phones (releasing a user’s hardware from indenture to a particular service provider), the copying of DVDs, modification of gaming consoles, so on. The person in question had been engaging in such activities for years, he explained, until realising that, far from challenging traditional market structures, his group was actually performing a form of underground marketing that had already been recognised by certain corporations – he named Sony specifically. Increasingly those corporations were using underground ‘cracker’ communities to distribute early versions of their products which, with their readymade illict halo, had an instant appeal to the youth market at which they were largely targeted. Disgusted, the young activist immediately ceased his activities.[2]
