In Which Josh Discovers It's Actually Quite Plausible That "They" Have A "File" On "Him"
UPDATE: Even moreso, what Justin says:
And at that time, a number of collaborators seemed paranoid when they were nervous about infiltrators...we were asked a number of times how we would deal with agents provocateur. I'm happy to say that we didn't give in to that type of fear in our planning...but it's odd to realize that in our photos and videos from that week, there are probably a few faces we never saw again, once they returned to NYPD HQ.
In addition to feeling like our privacy was invaded and our loyalty questioned by this senseless spying, I also smile a little...our movement has such a level of transparency, what did these police spies think they were going to find that we weren't already advertising over every list-serve and blog that would have us?
This is a really important point vis-a-vis my Vanguard thoughts below. To the extent that there is organizing going on which has credibly "revolutionary" potential (sorry, the wanna-be Maoists aren't that), it's being done with an unprecedented degree of transparency. This is actually a major difference vs. most power-organizing schools of thought of the past, and beyond just being novel, may actually represent a major step forward in our capabilities to undermine, subvert, collapse or control entrenched and malign power-structures. Here's hoping.
It wouldn't surprise me to find MFA, myself, or people I know in those files. Sometimes thinking about where we're at as a country can get a little abstract... this article today hit me a lot harder than a blog or article about the latest administration scandal ever could.
Sort of flattering. Sort of spooky. It makes me wonder about all those people who wanted to "make documentaries" about the stuff we did during the RNC.
At the end of the day I still fall back on Brautigan -- you can have security or you can have sanity; pick one -- and I think it's more important to trust people than fear them. But still, it's not a Good Thing that this kind of covert surveillance is allowed. Begs to be abused.
The Meek under surveillance
Mon, 2007-03-26 10:41 — John YWhile this is scary, the idea of an unmarked van with infrared surveillance pointed at the Meek is kind of funny. Imagine what they heard when they point the dish up at Murph and Wes' apartment.
Deep Cover....
Mon, 2007-03-26 11:04 — TreslerJust got back to NYC. Am flat out tired, but had to share.
This very news struck the Advomatic beach house like a hurricane named Franz. It didn't take long for all the headlines to be read and the narcissism to run its course. Yeah, thats right, they were spying on Us (where 'us' is them, not me.)
There was a good deal of feeling vindicated with a dash of fuck yeah - we (again, them) were potentially powerful enough to warrant spying.
Thats when it happened. You see, what with the gag orders and the potential FBI spys in the midst of la revolucion. We (with me this time) started getting a little jumpy. Mordecai always had kind of a squinty look to him... what if he was one of them. It didn't take long for us to work ourselves into a lather. Seems like this would be the perfect place to have an embedded agent. Someone in 'deep cover'. Someone sneaky, who was with it through the Dean Campaign, and yet was never quite 'one of the gang'.
Someone, like Outlandish Josh. It didn't take long for your cover to be blown. I mean, what deeper cover than to be sent to sniff out the liberals in Humbolt County. You even have the best background cover story. Commune Living and to much marijuana have clearly shown you the error of the progressive left. We all know Josh.
You can go back and report to your 'superiors' that you've ben outed worse than Plame, and you ned to be re-assigned. Maybe they have a security position at Guantanamo for you - I hear you get to travel a lot for work there.
oh yes.... very saggitarius.
albuquerque?
Tue, 2007-03-27 01:31 — samueli sort of assumed at the time that "they" were keeping "files" on a lot of people around. especially, for instance, the ufpj people that i met with franz.
but abuquerque?
i mean... the social circles of people who were planning demonstrations against the RNC is relatively small. i know a lot of those cats.
one degree of separation from a file, at most.
freaky.
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