#38 / A Metamemetic Insurrection?

 

I am kind of an Adbusters fan. The Adbusters Media Foundation, as Wikipedia tells us, is a Canadian-based not-for-profit, pro-environment organization founded in 1989 by Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz. It is perhaps most famous because Adbusters helped kick off the Occupy Wall Street Protest in September 2011, in Zuccotti Park in New York City. This protest then gave rise to the wider Occupy Movement in the United States and other countries:

The main issues raised by Occupy Wall Street were social and economic inequality, greed, corruption and the undue influence of corporations on government—particularly from the financial services sector. The OWS slogan, "We are the 99%," refers to income and wealth inequality in the U.S. between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population. The protesters were forced out of Zuccotti Park on November 15, 2011. Protesters then turned their focus to occupying banks, corporate headquarters, board meetings, foreclosed homes, and college and university campuses.

Though the Occupy Movement has faded from immediate public view, the concerns it raised are still very much with us. Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, in particular, has tried to elevate efforts to overcome massive income inequality into a powerful political force in the United States. His "Our Revolution" effort has definitely not disappeared, post-election, and the economic impacts of the current Covid-19 pandemic has made clear how critically important it will be to redress the economic imbalance that has siphoned off virtually all of the productivity gains in the economy and placed them in the hands of a very small number of "the billionaire class."

Adbusters hasn't gone away, either. Most recently, in fact, Adbusters and its "Blackspot Collective" has announced a "Metamemetic Insurrection." You can find out more by clicking that link. Among other things, Adbusters is planning to "spark student mutinies," and to "wipe ExxonMobil off the face of the earth." That is only a partial list, of course, but those sound like worthy projects - particularly the last one! 

Here is how the proposed Insurrection is described in a recent email:

Welcome to the Blackspot Collective, our global network of activists, artists, designers, writers, musicians, poets, punks, philosophers and wild hearts.

You're now an insider of Adbusters’ activist wing.

Together, we can hack deep into our failing global system and fundamentally transform it. Clean up the toxic areas of our mental environment. Make the price of every product tell the ecological truth. Reverse the upward flow of wealth. Punish corporations that betray the public trust. Trigger a paradigm shift in the "science" of economics. Make secrecy taboo. Clamp down on the arms trade . . . and in nation after nation, pass constitutional amendments requiring a referendum with at least 50% approval before any war can begin.

Achieving these goals calls for nothing less than an all-out Metamemetic Insurrection, a total reinvention of the activist playbook that will see the rise of a Third Force, a geopolitical power-base that operates totally outside the traditional Left and Right. 

With the most revolutionary tool ever invented in the palms of our hands, we will come up with bold new ways to live, love, and think.

Stay tuned for tactical briefings, campaign info and critical intelligence. Submit your paintings, poetry, cartoons, visual memes, posters, rants and photographs to editor@adbusters.org and send your strategic input to blackspotcollective@adbusters.org.

Let’s get together, build an empowered global network, share ideas and tactics . . . and make the future compute.

For the wild,

Blackspot Collective

The insurrection being advocated is supposed to "crack the global mind," and that sounds like a good idea to me! 

As "Step One," of course!

Image Credit:

https://www.adbusters.org/listserv/the-metamemetic-insurrection