TACTICAL
BRIEFING #27 -- #LAUGHRIOT
Alright you
wild cats, nimble dreamers and jammer tacticians,
In a sudden
about-face, the United States has conceded a victory to Occupy and moved May's
G8 summit to Camp David, an impenetrable military base in rural Maryland. Wow!
Looks like the specter of 50,000 occupiers ready to swarm with a list of
demands has turned the climactic Showdown in Chicago into a humiliating G8 Backdown. Bravo!
Splitting the G8 and NATO summits was a deft move" but now we've got a major tactical
rethink on our hands.
The big
question is do we follow Mao's advice ("when the enemy retreats, we pursue") or
Sun Tzu's ("Do not pursue an enemy who simulates flight")? We've heard
persuasive arguments on all sides. Some occupiers say the movement should lay
chase and go for #OCCUPYCAMPDAVID
against all odds " a month of tree-sits, lockdowns and nomadic encampments in
the woods and nearby Thurmont. Others believe it's best to up the ante with #OCCUPYCHICAGO:
an even bigger mobilization beginning with the May Day General Strike. Still
others advocate an unpredictable everywhere-at-once global insurgency of
anarchic swarms throughout the month of May.
When Ben
Ali first attacked then tried to hide from his people, he was toppled. When
Mubarak refused to negotiate and tried to beat his people back into line, he
was deposed. Now the White House and the G8 are repeating the mistakes of last
year's autocrats " first they try to scare us with tough talk of repressive
anti-Occupy ordinances, crowd suppression technologies and paramilitary
policing, then they make a hasty retreat to the safety of Camp David.
The world's
leaders flee from us " so what do we do? Maybe we just laugh at them?
On May 18,
the day the G8 leaders meet in Camp David, why don't we, the people of the
world have a #LAUGHRIOT. Let roars of laughter rise up from towns and
cities everywhere at the spectacle of the world's leaders trying to crisis
manage the economy from behind closed doors and razor wire fences.
Laughter is
one of the most powerful tactical weapons of memewar " it signals supremacy and
loss of fear. So let's pull off the greatest comedy of howling flash mobs,
riotous street parties and hysterical pranks the world has ever seen. May 18
could be a monumental tipping point" an ahahaha! moment when the people of the
world have a collective epiphany, and from that point on start thinking
differently about how the world should be governed.
Jammers,
whatever we do this Spring, let's float like butterflies and sting like bees!
Let's bend the G8 and NATO to our will with shock tactics and audacious culture
jams that capture the imagination of the world. We may be far closer to a
Global Spring than any of us has so far dared to imagine "
for the
wild,
Culture Jammers HQ
OccupyWallStreet.org
/ Tactical Briefing #25 and #26 / OccupyWallst.org
/ G8Protest.org / OccupyChi.org / CANG8.org / Takethesquare.net / OccupyMay1st.org / MayDayNYC.org / Facebook
/ Twitter
/ Reddit
PS. Tell us
your strategy for the Global Spring " and send your funniest G8/NATO spoofs,
memes and jams to kono@adbusters.org
and let's get ready to laugh til it hurts.