A Thoreauvian Vision Coming to Pass

As my fifth and final post to follow my four formal posts (link to those four provided here), I would like to expose the literature, Henry David Thoreau's essay "Civil Disobedience" in a comparison with Electronic Civil Disobedience (ECD) as we know it.

In my research and readings, I haven't found much on the topic other than ECD articles and websites simply saying that Thoureau's essay was the primary text or that it pioneered ECD. Something I believe but I could never find evidence or support for this philosophy. In a close reading of the literary, I have found many comparisons that can be applied to ECD and establish the text as a true primary source for the virtual method of protest.

The Analysis

"I heartily accept the motto, 'That government is best which governs least'...and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have." Thoreau begins the text by arguing that government is subject to the people. This sets a foundation which allows the people the right to stand up to their government, protest, and standing for what they believe is to be true. "Government" he says has "lost some of its integrity...it [imposes upon man]...it does not keep the country free, it does not educate." Thoreau mentions the Mexican War, something he was greatly opposed to. The Mexican people would not have "consented to this measure" to which the Mexican government imposes upon them.

"Civil Disobedience" and the Zapatistas

The Zapaitsta Army of National Liberation have been fighting a battle against the Mexican Government for its implentation of NAFTA, which they believe increases neo-liberalism and capitalism which oppress the indigenous people and Working class in the state of Chiapas. The Zapatista Army is not demanding a government to cease governing the people at all but "at once a better government." This battle began in 1994 and is still continuing 16 years later. Thoreau admonishes "every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it." A battle that has prolonged 16 years and is not over yet has definitely posed as a threat to the Mexican government. A battle for the equal rights and liberation of the indigenous people in Chiapas.

Thoreau was not only an abolitionist but also went to jail for refusing to pay his poll tax under President James K. Polk's term in office in protest that it would support the Mexican War. He says:

I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slave's government also. All men recognize the right of revolution...the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government when its tyranny or its inefficient are great and unendurable.

The Zapatistas recognize the right and freedom of all mankind. They believe that Everything is for Everyone and Everyone has the right to Freedom. This video clip below shows two travelers visit to Chiapas and their interview with Zapatista leaders. In Zapatista territory, the Zapatistas rule the government and the government is subject to the people. This illuminates a society in which Thoreau imagined.

Thoreau wrote this text for all people in all places. The Zapatista battle has also been a battle of peaceful protest. A "peaceable revolution," Thoreau states, is "if a thousand men were not to pay their tax bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood." The Zapatistas have partaken in Thoreau's ideology of peaceful revolution. Since 1994, the Zapatista army has abstained from using their weapons for violence. Instead, they have been determined to fight their war through words. Words relaying their actions and messages. The Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT) has greatly assisted in spreading the Zapatista message through using FloodNet software and other forms of ECD like Virtual Sit-Ins and Hacktivism.

"Civil Disobedience" and Professor Ricardo Dominguez

Ricardo Dominguez, co-founder of EDT and professor on ECD at University of California-San Diego, recently led a protest along with his students against the UCOP (University of California Office of the President) in the increased college fees. The protests took place on the internet through Virtual Sit-Ins. "The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right." Dominguez and his students thought this to be right and a cause for a Virtual Sit-In, "[letting] every [student and professor] make known what kind of [UCOP] would command [their] respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it." As the UCOP websites were hacktivated and the reload button was clicked by over 400 students every 1 to 6 seconds, creating a feel for thousands of computers trying to access, messages were sent out and students felt their academic freedom was being violated.

Shortly after the attacks, Dominguez was brought into questioning, UCSD placing him under surveillance to see if any criminal charges could be placed for a professor that had just recently given tenure. Placed under scrutiny by his own "government", Dominguez "educated" his students and others by "serving the state with [his] conscience, and so necessarily [resisting] it for the most part" to be "commonly treated as [an enemy]." Through their protest, they "[refused] allegiance to, and [resisted], the government [UCOP]." Letters were written all over the globe in support for Dominguez's actions. Students and faculty performed a silent protest on campus in support of Dominguez and protesting the right to academic freedom, declaring their virtual protest as a new media form of art.

"A wise man will not leave the right to ther mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority." What if Dominguez didn't protest the increased college fee? The vote would go to the California people and the majority vote might be a "yes". Through protesting and standing for justice, Dominguez raised awareness, sparked thought, and possibly created change through sending artistic messages across the Internet medium. As Thoreau ceased to pay his poll tax, he said "it costs me less in every sense to incur the penalty of disobedience to the State than it would to obey." Pay the highway tax yes he would but "as for supporting schools," Thoreau is "doing [his] part to educate [his] fellow countrymen now." Would Dominguez pay the increased college fee if he were subject to? I do not believe he would. As the "Government" fails "to educate," Dominguez succeeds through his actions.

Thoreauvian Vision

"I please myself with imagining a State at last which can afford to be just to all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor...A State which bore this kind of fruit, and suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious State, which I have also imagined, but not yet anywhere seen."

The Zapatistas in Chiapas, Ricardo Dominguez's protests in San Diego, and Virtual Sit-Ins and other forms of protest provided by the Internet allow for this State to be visualized. Activists exposing the truth, defending causes for truth, justice, and equality, and standing up against the "evils" and "machines" of government, have pushed Thoreau's philosophy further. Thoreau applauds a Chinese philosophers wisdom "to regard the individual as the basis of the empire"

The Internet provides a means of freedom. As Thoreau sat in his jail cell, he recognized the freedom he had and in no sense a feeling of confinement. The World Wide Web provides a means of open access, communication over the globe, and endless opportunities to spread messages of activism and protest. There are no "walls of stone...to climb or break through" to become free. A vision and a means becoming fulfilled one activist at a time.

An Info-War, a Virtual Sit-In, and Hacktivists…United for a Cause

Henry David Thoreau once said "That government is best which governs least". He then changes ground and asks “not at once” to be rid of government “but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step towards obtaining it”. Organizations like the Electronic Disturbance Theater who take action through electronic civil disobedience are in different forms of protest making the government know what kind of government it ought to be--delegated by the people who command respect and equality.

As mentioned in “The Zapatistas and Electronic Disturbance Theater” post last week, I viewed the birth of the Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT) in relation to the Mexican Zapatistas and discussed a few of the technicalities of protest they demonstrate including their software FloodNet which allows activists to form some sort of electronic artistic way to send across messages of protest/disturbance. FloodNet has been the source of virtual sit-ins practiced by EDT members and participants all over cyberspace. A virtual sit-in is another form of electronic civil disobedience (ECD) created by the EDT.

Before I begin, please view the two videos which will discuss the information war, virtual sit-ins, and hacktivism—the main three topics of this post. Keep in mind that it is difficult to separate each topic into a category of its own because they are interlaced and cannot exist without the other. In these videos, you will see the uniting of the three…



Information Warfare

An infowar is a war of words, a form of propaganda, a desire to push words for action. The internet has allowed a pathway for a cyber infowar to take place. The internet allows activists to incite action as opposed to simply describing the information. Information Warfare was involved in the Zapatistas action for equality from the Mexican government in Chiapas, MX. The Zapatista experience has been a war of words instead of a prolonged military conflict. Of course there is still a strong Mexican military presence in Chiapas, however as mentioned in my earlier post, there was no way for the Zapatistas to battle alone. In no way could they take down the Mexican and US governments and so EDT joined with the Zapatistas to create an Information War that led to virtual sit-ins and hacktvism using the FloodNet software. The fighting technically ended on January 12, 1994 and since then there has been a ceasefire and numerous attempts at negotiation. Scholars, activists, and journalists have said that the Zapatistas owe their survival to this war of words. It is the propaganda that has been unleashed by the Zap leaders like Subcommandante Marcos and non-Zapatista supporters throughout the world. Communication and information has been spread through the famous Mexican newspaper, La Jornada, a more traditional way of sending out information but it has also been distributed through e-mail since the digital Zapatista took rise January 1, 1994 with the aid of Ricardo Dominguez and the Electronic Disturbance Theater (Wray). The infowar provides a way to not only incite action but to do so on a global level. After the Acteal Massacre of 1997, the word spread all over the internet and within days, protests and actions were going on at the Mexican consulates and embassies all over the world. The internet has been seen as a source for activists to communicate and take action. In order for an infowar to take root, electronic civil disobedience comes into play exposing new varieties of protest including virtual sit-ins.

Virtual Sit-Ins

Virtual sit-ins began in 1998 as an online activist tool created by Dr. Ricardo Dominguez which allows activists, using FloodNet, to potentially flood and take down a website. They use an HTML-based program that targets a specific website and allows other activists to join and participate. As each individual joins in the protest, the website is forced to refresh the page which draws in more traffic and eventually leads to a prevention of use. This form of technology reveals the reasons as to why individuals participate in the protest and tells how long it will last thus giving it far more meaning. But how?..

Stefan Wray, who has been mentioned in earlier posts, sees the form of virtual sit-ins, a new form of civil disobedience, when compared to the traditional form of civil disobedience, allows an ECD actor the ability to participate in virtual blockades and sit-ins from home, work, school, and virtually any location where there is access to the Net. Dominguez says in regards to electronic civil disobedience that it:

allows us to think about the question of art becoming a social manifestation, allows us to think about art allowing communities who do not have access to power to make themselves present, that allows the unbearable weight of human beings to put a stop to the crisis that is around us—especially the juicy crisis of education. It allows us to see that art is an active space in public culture and that it cannot be disregarded.

Dominguez views virtual sit-ins from an active EDT member viewpoint. The art assimilated with cyberspace allows activists to voice their message of protest in a different and unique way.

The goal of the Electronic Disturbance Theater is to take the traditional and respected form of civil disobedience and attach it to the cyber world. A virtual sit-in on an internet website allows for the same purpose of protest in a different form. Just like an embodied traditional physical sit-in, in order to be effective, a virtual sit-in also needs a lot of people in order to make a purpose clear. Participants are noticed and seen as a force. For a virtual sit-in to be effective, it must be transparent and open access.

There is a difference between a virtual sit-in and a “Distributed denial of Service” (DDoS) attack. With a DDoS attack, unknown individuals become channels in increasing traffic to certain internet addresses, making it inoperable and threatening a crash of the system. In a DDoS attack, identity is obscured and there are extended assaults motivated by retribution, financial gain, and an attempt to censor freedom of speech. A virtual sit-in differs greatly in that the individuals participating in the sit-in have a goal, a reason, for protest and they make that known. Actions are stated, grievances are described, participants are known, and once it is over, there is no physical damage done. Participants use the FloodNet software and the reload/refresh button on a webpage that eventually sends a cross a message in the URL. The message is a digital artistic form of speech in protest. In order for these virtual sit-ins to uprise, hacking must occur and in an activist form, Hacktivism, comes to rise.

Hacktivism: “Words AS War, Not Words FOR War”—Ricardo Dominguez

Hacktivism, according to the Electrohippies, is a function that combines hacking and activism in a technological sense to provide “Hacktivism”. Hacktivism is a legal “tool for open and focused action against injustice and human subjugation.” Hacktivism uses creative ways as have been previously mentioned to send forth messages. Hacktivists take a piece of technology, a URL code, a website, and envision a use for it beyond what it was designed for. This innovative thinking combined with a hacktivist’s desire for truth and rights in a social or political context allows for progressive movements in digital protest.

Hacktivism has already been mentioned in my previous post and throughout this one. Using FloodNet, participants would visit a website and then download the Java Applet software which would access the target site and reload or refresh every couple of seconds. The protests allow protestors to leave personal statements on the targeted server error logs. With the Zapatistas, for example, browsers were pointed to non-existent files which included the names of those murdered in the Acteal Massacre on the target server. The server would return and log the message “[murdered victim’s name] not found on this server.” This was a creative form of protest with the intentions to send out a message of non-violent awareness, protest, and a re-visitation and reminder to the murderers. Brett Stalbaum, the creator of FloodNet characterizes the software as “conceptual net art that empowers people through active/artistic expression.”

Hacktivism is a peaceful form of protest that organizes a mass amount of people with using FloodNet to create a “symbolic gesture”. Digital activism and hacktivism allows people in different parts of the world to view things that have been censored by their government. Hacktivism exposes truth in an artistic and meaningful way. The video below shows the political exposure which raises awareness to citizens in several different countries. The traditional ways of protest are also viewed in this video. The concensus is that cyber-activism provides a platform for several more people to take a virtual stand to relay the same message across.

Electronic Civil Disobedience combining FloodNet software, the information war, virtual sit-ins, and hacktivism allows for an undoubted measure of activism and protest to come about through a mass load of messages and participants. But are these methods of protest even effective? Stefan Wray analyzes the word effective and defines it in the light of hacktivism in that "if hacktivism is to draw attention to particular issues by engaging in actions that are unusual and will attract some degree of media coverage, then the effectiveness can be seen as high...hactktivism appears to be a means to augment or supplement existing organizing efforts, a way to make some noise and focus attention."

Wray describes this generation as a period of expansion and not contraction. "The nature of cyberspace is extraterritorial. People can easily act across geographic political borders." Hacktivism on the rise provides for endless opportunities that exist in some combination of word and deed. Where is hacktivism going? In my up and coming posts I will be discussing modern forms of hacktivism in current events, its effectiveness and the frontier ahead.

Ode to the Process

Brainstorm....... Organize.......... Process..........

In the process of researching and writing my expository blogs on electronic civil disobedience and the connection with Thoreau's revolutionary essay, "Civil Disobedience", I have found myself swarmed (in a good and brilliant way) by so much useful information. I have literally been introduced as an outsider to a topic. All of the information I am accumulating is incredible! I have been searching the web, blog posts, using search engines like google and googlescholar, searching social network sites like twitter and facebook, and a plethora of so much more.

In recording my information, I have been using Diigo, a website dedicated to research and sharing that knowledge within a community. Building networks and collaborating with colleagues using Diigo has allowed me to build my own personal library where I store most of all the research I have been using. I am a big fan of Diigo and the tools it allows me to use (like hi-lighting web pages and even adding "sticky" notes) and encourage others to participate in the research world!

All of this research has allowed me to organize, process, and sort information. I am so interested in my topic and I feel it is so important to share to the world which gives me the responsibility of sorting my research into how I wish to explain it. In working with my topic of Electronic Civil Disobedience (ECD) and relating it back to my main focus of literature, "Civil Disobedience", I need to first explain the history of ECD. How it was organized, what it does, and where it is headed.

In my introductory blog post, I discussed civil disobedience and its history here in America and discussed the building up to a new form of civil disobedience found in the cyber world. All in all, linking back to Thoreau's theology that that “unjust laws exist” and asks fellow citizens “shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded or shall we transgress them at once?”

The posts following discussed discoveries I found on the internet of another piece of literature (I have yet to look more deeply into) and an upcoming event on peace and non-violence to be held in Australia.

My last post ties into the history of Electronic Civil Disobedience and a few of the technicalities that go along with it including its roots, relationship with the Mexican Zapatistas, its founding, and the FloodNet software. There is still so much more they are involved in: virtual sit-ins, hacking, the infowar going on around cyberspace, and current issues that the Electronic Disturbance Theater is apart of.

My plan for blogging is to lead up to ECD practiced in modern times, tying it into Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" and to be honest arriving at a conclusion I'm not exactly sure what is just yet. Electronic Civil Disobedience is absolutely present in the world's society and politics. What will this mean for the future? Where is this headed? Well as I discover the answers to these questions and express my ideas I hope to deliver a message that provokes thought and a platform for new ideas and thinking.