PUBLIC UPROAR
a journal for eclectic policy

Any comments or questions about the articles in this issue or past issues, feel free to E-mail me at dcr420dcr@hotmail.com. Thank you. - Darin Robbins, sole contributing author
            
NEW DIMENSIONS IN IDEOLOGICAL PROFILING

With the transition from an industrial to an information economy, the political spectrum in terms of ideology has expanded. Along with the scale of left and right, there is the perpendicular scale of old and new, also known as traditional and radical intersecting liberal and conservative. The breakdown of linear functional structures has resulted in a more textured area of political identification. With this two-dimensional graph of ideology, there are clearly grey areas where one can find the new disenfranchised. They are disenfranchised because the new arm of the graph is not recognized. The change of economic, and then social conditions, create the need to expand the model of the spectrum. A more comprehensive understanding of ideology and political agenda-formation will result if the spectrum model is acknowledged as growing a new arm. The political discourse will be more open and less limited in terms and vocabulary. The fluidity of political affiliation is a healthy aspect in a society, and an example of multivalence. The mosaic of single-issue alignments enhances the competition and equilibrium of factions. Factions are a side-effect of political action and awareness in a democracy. As long as there is a decision to be made by a vote, there is the debate to convince on the issue. In order not to extinguish expression, and also innovation, factions must be tolerated. This marketplace of ideas tests issues on merit rather than repetition or abstraction under ideology. People becoming part of different groups based on the person’s different opinions of different current issues makes the population of established movements heterogeneous. This erodes the bedrock of ideology and makes generalization difficult and secondary. Here, the individual needs and desires can return and work in such a way as to enrich and refresh the collective and make it more effective in societal acts. The two-dimensional graph reflects this trend toward single-issue alignments, and is an attempt to map out this phenomenon. As time passes, and as changes in society and economics escalate, there is the beginning of a third dimension of the political spectrum. This is a tendency to move from up to down, and could be described as moving from statist to libertarian. As the graph achieves new dimensions, the ability to describe the political landscape becomes more accurate and misunderstanding in study and debate can be avoided. The conditions of our world, and how they shape us in terms of thought, will determine the rate at which ideological profiling can grow towards precision.             

HOMEMADE CIVIL DISOBEDIANCE

To be involved as a public citizen requires one to translate personal beliefs into actions that are upheld by the modes of a particular community. Usually, these modes are within customs as well as governmental and legal procedure. The two most direct forms of public action are that of voting and of grassroots activism in the United States. Any progressive movement or change must be channeled through these two forms and, at most, at the same time. Philosophical debate and theorizing are necessary as a drawing of terms and limits to any particular goal or mission. On its own, philosophical beliefs aim at long-term change and reform, which is itself a craft to master. But in public life there is the requirement to put any theory into action through the methods of voting and activism for any degree of completion to be enacted. The cause of a movement must be singular, but acknowledge that it is part of a larger network of movements and action. One of the failing points of the work done in the 1960s is that there was a wide range of causes, and individual groups at times either spread themselves too thin or clashed with the leaders and hierarchy of similar organizations. A lot of energy and focus was wasted in these micro-management conflicts. But for those who have known political action as the vote, and the occasional protest or letter-writing campaign, I would like to suggest some forms of civil disobedience that can be accessible to the average homemaker or 9 to 5 worker, not to mention the average student. Civil disobedience itself is very positive in most people’s minds for its emphasis on non-violence and its historical relevance to Mohandas K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.. But there is a great commitment when one puts themselves in front of moving vehicles and armored police, going limp and not fighting back, in order to bring attention to an issue. Many people do not have the time, money, or temperament to put themselves on the frontline of grassroots activism. Therefore, I propose certain methods that bring about the same effect but curtail the bodily harm and extreme pressure to mind and body. In short, these include: microbroadcasting, zine publication, infoshop maintenance, general culture jamming, shareware distribution, and Linux development and propagation. In terms of microbroadcasting, the short-range frequencies for radio are neither used by any broadcasting company or regulated by the FCC, thereby allowing individuals with the right equipment to broadcast issue-intensive radio programming as far as a 12 mile radius. Legally, this would be considered outlaw radio, but it can also be used as community radio giving voice to those who are silenced by corporate media. Zine publication, either online or by paper, is what I am doing right now. The 1990s saw a renaissance in zine production with the freedom of personal homepages on the Net, alongside the abundance of Kinko’s franchises and other copier establishments. In this case, the strip-mall epidemic in suburban America gave ammunition to underground media by way of printing resources. Though images that are cut and pasted on zines are a characteristic and part of the structure, text is the engine of each issue. Artistic ability is not a requirement for making a zine, but an idea and an opinion is important. An infoshop is where someone would go to have access to a copier for his or her zine. These places are usually nonprofit and have been classified as alternative bookstores, even though they exhibit the practices more of an alternative media library. Besides that, they allow for bulletin board space for neighborhood activists and give a physical meeting place for many direct action groups to plan and organize. They are centers for information that can be accessed if one does not have use of a computer, yet wants the news that corporate media obstructs. Infoshops usually are non-profit and operate this way to preserve their integrity of being a populist library and marketplace for ideas. Some publications that one may find in an infoshop may deal with the practice of culture jamming. General culture jamming incorporates previously mentioned methods, but includes the use of commercialized imagery to project a guerilla warfare on the very commercialization of human life. The use of cut-and-paste techniques, and the perceived vandalism of such things as billboards and other advertising medium, display not only the message of the activist but says something by its process. The stigma of vandalism can make most culture jamming illegal, but the creation of literature such as flyers and posters from commercial works is very easy. The most important point is to insure that the created works of culture jammers is able to invade the everyday life of people who engage in the corporate culture and are normally distracted by the status quo. Graffiti can be considered as culture jamming if it conveys a message and is an example of craftsmanship, rather than a hastily drawn swear word. The very fact that an artistic attempt is done upon a bleak surface of public property, or someone else’s property, is a political statement on creativity and self-expression. The critique of the profit-motive in regards to property can be done by the use and distribution of shareware applications on the Internet. In order to promote the interactivity that is possible on the Internet, it is important not only to remain informed online about issues and activist groups, but also to spread services that go beyond the simple concept of buying and selling. File-sharing as done by Napster and similar services allow information and information-related goods to detour around the natural obstacles of consumer capitalism. Another practice, open-source programming for Linux for example, encourages a community of non-employees to be innovative in improving on a operating system that is much more powerful and customizable than the Windows monopoly. They do not create new technology advancements because they are paid to do so, but work to create for the benefit of all and for returns more valuable than monetary profit. Both uses of the connectivity of the Internet work for an interest that is a global and self-interest at the same time, but not narrowly confined by an economic definition. Overall, this is a highlight of various methods and strategies of direct action that can supplement voting activism, in order to bring about issues into focus and create some sort of social justice, for those who can not dedicate their entire life to the cause of freedom in a democracy.                               

THE HALF-BRED FRONTIER

One of the most important questions in race relations in the twentieth century was, “Can white and black people live together as equals under the law and society?”. Another question arises in the new century, but I believe it has a different type of answer. That question is, “Can those who are biracial or multi-racial belong to a race and be treated equally as was attempted in the twentieth century?”. The first question is still being worked out, but it navigates slowly and awkwardly towards the affirmative. The second question does not need a yes or no answer, but rather a new way of looking at racial identity in order to help answer the first question. A sense of belonging is important for those who are children of black and white parents, since it is from the premise of race identity that people have tried to build bridges to connect everyone in our country. However, within each race, a biracial child is considered an outsider, the other, or not part of the shared cultural history of a race. Therefore, they have been left out of the discussion of race relations, and have suffered in terms of self-worth and in the lack of being part of any collective step forward in civil rights. They are called multi-racial, a semi-scientific term that excludes them from being a possible third race. This alternative of a third race is impractical due to the stupendously wide range of any genetic identifiers that could encompass all of them. In fact, I would propose that multi-racial children could be viewed as a step forward not only in race relations but also in cultural evolution in general. The fact of multi-racial children even existing is a sign that racial boundaries are slowly evaporating, and that the difference of skin color is gradually seen as identical to a difference in eye color. This concept of cultural evolution would require using a Darwinian model and applying it to cultural traits instead of biological traits. Darwin proposed that survival of any species depended upon that species having the appropriate traits that would originally surface randomly, but then be passed down genetically to offspring. For Darwin, survival of the fittest meant survival of the most varied, since those with the most diverse physical traits would have the ability to adapt to their environment. Applying this to interracial marriages and procreation, the children of these unions would receive the cultural and physical traits of more than one source. The offspring would be a repository of the best of each race, with the worst aspects being canceled out by each other. Their family history and culture would be more various, and enrich the multi-racial child in a more comprehensive way. In terms of our civilization, the more we have individuals with a wide-range of cultural identifiers, the more likely that these individuals will be the vanguard of our collective identity and existence. They will become more of a global citizen and feel at place in the global setting. The revitalization of the human being in general requires that humans of different races come together to blur racial distinctions on a genetic level, while pooling together the best and brightest characteristics of all races on a social and cultural level. Therefore, interracial romantic relationships should be supported as a way to give more to our children in terms of family and social background as well as a cultural and aesthetic inheritance. Encouraging multi-racial offspring makes us question the distinctions that were made in the past and which allowed racist practices to continue in social behavior. Community is emphasized and made more apparent, while physical characteristics and biology meld in different combinations for only cosmetic purposes. At this point, biracial children are considered out of place in the strict classifications of race, but when the children stand up and declare themselves a rightful inheritor to all cultural histories then we see a giant step forward. This thinking about a brotherhood of man becomes a more realistic goal when the brotherhood is more literal on a biological level, and the gift of identity is shared in terms of values and community. Each race, especially those with a history of oppression, has gone through a revitalization process where positive history and togetherness has been emphasized in newly created traditions. This process has served to strengthen the self-esteem and pride of the oppressed members of that race and gave them a purpose. All humanity is entitled to that sense of self-worth, and can achieve it by being rooted in all racial cultures and historical foundations.