Barbelith and Revolution

From Barbelith

One question that was asked a lot for the first couple of years of the board's life was, "So if you lot are supposed to be revolutionaries, why aren't you out causing civil unrest and throwing bombs?"

There are a whole range of responses to this question, some more serious than others. But basically the answer is that some of us are - not throwing bombs, per se - but engaging in civil disobedience, marches, protests, creating art and the like. Other members of the board can't be bothered, or don't believe in civil unrest as a valid method for achieving change. There are also people on the board who have more conservative politics, and some who are more out-there and trying to change the world with magic, or worse - letter writing campaigns.

It's true that the tenor of the board has changed, probably reflecting the gradual aging of the core members or the board's maturation and increasing openness to people of varied political persuasions. This is either a really good thing or a cause for shame, depending on who you ask. The board's aspirations have changed a bit now though - towards being an online community which experiments with political structures and aiming towards quality of conversation above anything else.

And here's a final word from Jack Fear: "Life's not a comic book: if and when the hideous trans-spatial overlords swarm down a breach in the reality grid and start devouring our world like so much overripe fruit, I'll be out in the streets chucking Molotov cocktails at their soulless drone-soldiers, driving them back to Dimension X with automatic weapons and boundless love. But almost everyone on the street, even the one you might think of as an "oppressor," is a real human being trying to make a life. I have no desire to blow them up. As for civil unrest: when called-for. If you do it all the time, people will get used to you. Revolution can be inclusive. And it happens, first of all, in the head. Without that, it's just a punch-up, and the bigger guys are going to win."

If you're interested in political and social change, the parts of the board that might interest you most are likely to be The Switchboard and The Gathering