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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."
Just wait until someone high up views this as a threat and that Constitution guarantee gets brushed aside as something from a "different era" like concerns about quartering soldiers.
However in places like columbus ohio, as far as i'm aware, it's illegal to gather more than 6 people in public places with out a permit from the city. So i guess it's protected so long as you jump through the proper hoops. Sort of cuts down on the spontinaity thing. (although, i don't think i've ever heard of such a regulation being enforced)
There are lives at stake here!
I was a part of one of these, and let me tell you it was a riot. One of the rules was you couldn't initiate conversation with anyone and that answers to questions were scripted. We stayed together for 5 minutes and dispersed, no one having said a word. It was surreal but wonderful, especially the looks on the normal people's faces, trying to figure out exactly what was going on.
Triv
This looks a lot like some of the behavior engaged in the past (and present) by the the San Francisco Cacophony Society http://sf.cacophony.org/
The increasing capacity for spontaneous social expression via the network is going to get a boost, now that *everyone* who is within proximity of a prank has a chance to participate.
Yet another example of new social behaviors that emerge spontaneously at the 'edge' of the network.
It's be interesting to see what new kinds of mass social behavior develop, and which ones manage to survive, and become institutionalized.
As long as no one gets hurt, we could use a little levity.
As stated on the SF Cacophony site: "The Cacophony Society is a randomly gathered network of individuals united in the pursuit of experiences beyond the pale of mainstream society through subversion, pranks, art, fringe explorations and meaningless madness. "
Here's an excerpt about one past activity:
Mad Santa Crawl:
"each year at christmastime a crowd of santas descends upon one of san francisco's most-touristed neighborhoods to get drunk, to hand out disturbing gifts, and to frighten tourists.
on december 16, 2000 a santa faction drove to a ranch in petaluma, spent the afternoon discharging firearms, then joined the rest of the santas for the evening's festivities in san francisco. about 150 santas took over grant street in chinatown, and they eventually headed up into north beach."
It makes me wonder if we are on the verge of creating a trans-human intelligence capable of consciousness. Too bad we don't have any formal idea of what intelligence and conciousness is, or we could analyze the situation more closely...
-1, Too Many Layers Of Abstraction
All over the world, there's been a movement called Critical Mass that gets folks together to take over the streets on bike rides on a semi-regular basis. Here in Chicago, it's been really successful -- hundreds go on the main ride every month, even in the dead of winter. In the summer months, there have been around a thousand riders. Critical Mass is a sort of anarchic protest against the domination of our streets by cars but without a specific, directed agenda. 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. What's interesting is that now that almost everybody has some direct connection to the Net, Critical Mass rides are getting organized overnight. When the war in Iraq broke out, the next day a group of Critical Massers against the war (not all CM folks are) organized a very effective ride within a half a day and people have been now talking about organizing within a few hours. I have to wonder about flash crowds becoming flash protests or flash rides and what the potential benefits and problems of this will be. Speaking of which, this effect also happened in the South Korean election recently in a close race.
Online citizen journalism from the inner city: The View From The Ground
1. Fill out a 'right to peaceably assemble' permit, specifying the date, time, number of people expected, and reason for assembling. 2. Request where you'd like to peaceably assemble, keeping in mind that your local goverment may move you on a whim (Democratic National Convention, 2000). 3. Bribe 50 or so local officers so that you are not arrested for 'obstructing a sidewalk' (a la the protesters in NYC against the War in Iraq). 4. Finally, do not allow anyone to shout during said demonstration, otherwise police in riot gear that were 'hanging around' may find a reason to bust up your assembly.
War isn't about who's right. It's about who's left.
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.
I don't blame you for not knowing but people were not getting violent in Seattle during the WTO protest. I live near Seattle and although i was not there i know many people who were including my father was was taken into a holding cell for no reason and released when they realized he was a member of the BAR and they didn't want that.
Many of my friend were shot with rubber bullets and left with bruises for no reason other than being in a crowd. You might not believe me if i say this but i knew a cop who wanted to be involved just so he could shoot people doing nothing. Now im sure not al the cops there felt like that but i know there were enough to cause some trouble. There were soooo many camera's there that i would bet no act of violence was missed. When i watched on the news at night all i saw was violence but only a little but. They would loop the same two clips of people breaknig windows but it was nothing like it was portrayed on TV. EVERY single protest was peaceful and most of the police didn't do anything wrong. The problem was when someone totally unassociated with the protest went near them and starting breaking things. Then the police would go all out on the protesters. The worst part of the stores that were broken the only ones being protected were corporate stores. The assholes who were breaknig stuff did not discriminate between corporate and other stores as the media claimed. It was no protesters breaking the nike store. It was some assholes breaking anything before they were caught.
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