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Flash Mobs: Peaceable Assembly for Spontaneous Fun
Schmendr1ck writes "The Orlando Sentinel is carrying a story on the growing trend of 'creating a crowd on a moment's notice for no particular reason' knows as a flash mob. Recent flash mobs (sometimes hundreds of people) have wandered into into an upscale NYC shoe store acting like confused tourists from Maryland, gathered at the Hyatt near Grand Central Station for 15 seconds of spontaneous applause, and converged on the Macy's carpet department to debate the quality of the rugs for sale. Check
cheesebikini? for pictures and info on past mobs, as well as links to sites that organize these events. Sounds like a fun, harmless, and Constitutionally-protected way of blowing off a little steam."
Actually it's not constitutionally protected anyway. These people are doing this on private property and can be removed at any time by the request of the owners. If they fail to leave they are trespassing. If they decide to do this in a park or a public space then it would be constitutionally protected under the right to free assembly, however doing it in Sears doesn't fall under that category.
It's like one of the Lego built CD Changer Hacks, the MIT Practical Joke Hacks or Doom in Text Mode Hacks.
There is a mental challenge also:
It is mildly complicated to plan and organize. There is an element of imagination involved in coming up with a surreal situation to use the crowd in.
It is also like art using people.
If there was an actual practical purpose to the afore-mentioned Hacks then that would detract from the fun and Hack value of it.
In the same way, if these crowds met to protest something then people wouldn't even pay attention to them. They would see the protest signs and say - oh, more protesters.I live in NY and there are picket lines and protests everyday and they are all ignored.
The way it is now people notice the flash crowds BECAUSE there is no purpose to them.
The only time protestors are noticed is when they become violent like in Seattle, disrupt traffic or otherwise do things that are probably counter-productive to the cause they wish to promote. It might feel cool to participate in such mass protests, but I think they have little effect on policy e.g. the protests did nothing to stop the war from taking place in Iraq or in bringing home the troops.
I would actually appreciate a recent example where protests accomplished something in the US except increase security at WTO meetings.
This is hardly the same thing. Yes, the police were completly out of line in this case and were handed thier asses because of it. My point is that if you assemble on private property and are asked to leave you have no constitutional protection that allows you to stay there. The people that have been "flash mobbing" have been doing so in malls and other "public" places that are privately owned. If at any time these people are asked to leave and do not, they are tresspassing. Your story is completly unrelated, and is a blatent example of police abusing thier authority.
The desire to be special is one of the most "normal" human inclinations of all.
You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.
Support NRA, America's oldest civil rights group.
*begin rant mode in 3...2...1...*
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Fun my ass! You obviously have never tried to get thru a city during CM. The idea's not having fun, it's taking a mob mentality in thinking it's ok to disrupt everybody's life because you're pissed at the world.
I've always been one for peaceful demonstration and whatnot, but Critical Mass has always been a HUGE peeve of mine. What (and nobody I've asked has been able to answer this) is it supposed to accomplish??? Change? Well, it doesn't make me want to leave my car at home. It does, however, make me want to run down the next cyclist I see. Awareness? I know they say any publicity is good publicity, but pissing off the city isn't the way to gain support for a cause...
I might even agree with your cause. But the only thing making me late for work is gonna do is make me vote against whatever it is you're trying to accomplish.
Truth is, I've always thought of CM events as collective hissy fits. Just kicking and screaming and basically being annoying as hell.
If you want to bitch, fine, but direct it at someone who gives a damn and can do something about it. But don't fuck with the roads and interfere with all of us who are just trying to live our lives in peace and do our friggin jobs.
*sigh* It's so goddamn childish...
Princeton Illinois just made it illegal for groups to assemble in public. Big story around here. Tired of the kids causing trouble or something like that. I never cease to be amazed at how quickly the fundamental tenets or our society can be brushed aside.
If one cannot freely assemble in New York, then citizens of the place are no longer free human beings as defined by the Constitution. No debate required, that's just the way it is.
The question then becomes:
How much do you value the ideas presented by the Constitution?
And hey, maybe the brand of freedom offered in New York is good enough for your tastes. But don't take too much consolation from that. Look around the world and back through history and you'll see human beings finding all sorts of things palettable. If you get enough people content to subside on dogshit, that's what they get. You want to have better and keep it, you're gonna have to demand better. How demanding is America of it's freedoms in 2003?
If concepts had graves, the headstone for our lost freedoms would read:
"If you have nothing hide, you have nothing to worry about."
"You have nothing to worry about if you're not doing anything wrong."
What merits hiding? What is considered wrong?
Who determines these things if there is no longer a Constitution to define the spectrum of what a free human being can expect to be able to do within his own life?
Could you be content to place the entirety of your freedoms sqaurely in the lap of John Ashcroft? How about a future that contains a succession of people just like him, one after another. Mix that with corporate governance and policing as witnessed by the DMCA and RIAA.
The future will continue to be grim so long as we have a populace that's too foolish to understand the value of the protections given by the Constituion.
> The idea is that having fun and taking over streets, no matter what one's political orientation is, is a good way to make a statement
Make a statement about what? That you don't care about inconveniencing others and you've time on your hands?