The Rage

Autechre – Further

I read some editorial texts in Sydsvenskan, the local newspaper, today (for some reason, we got one in the mail). I hardly ever read papers. It seems like a waste of paper when news are just as available digitally. Seems even more a waste after reading this crap.

One of the texts were about the G8 summit in Tokyo. More specifically it was about the agreement on the climate which even the US agreed on, but critics are disappointed because it could have been a better deal and may already be tool little, too late. The text ends by some kind of attempt to ridicule the protesters because they seem less interested in the environment and more anti-G8 and anti-war.

Of course, the environment is important and we may all be fucked if it isn’t fixed fast, but it also seems to work as a diversion. It’s very convenient for some people to talk about the environment and ignore war, poverty, oppression and all that.

Here’s some inspiration:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV-SpX2gEkA]

Media responsibility?

I’ve been watching the news on TV these last couple days, for some reason (normally I hardly ever watch TV). Two days in a row they were talking about people smuggling.

How horrible it is that some people make a profit on others’ misery. How good it is when these smugglers are caught. How horrible it is that so many (I think it was 90% of all Iraqis coming to Sweden last year) come to our country in this illegal manner.

I might agree that it is a bit dirty to make a profit on others’ misery. It also means that people who are too poor get stuck where they are. As usual. But…

At no point in these two reports was it mentioned that for a lot of people this is the only way to go anywhere, since the authorities (of Sweden as well as the rest of the EU) have made it so difficult to come here. And at no point is it questioned that the people who were smuggled here should be sent back home. Because they came here illegally.

So we are meant to feel sorry for these people who have paid so much to get here, the only way possible for them, but we shouldn’t feel sorry enough to think that they should be allowed to stay. Or even get the chance to go through the immigration system before they are thrown out.

They only tell us half the story, but maybe people watching will see the bigger picture. Maybe…

Midsummer’s Eve with no human sacrifice

Once again, a union blockade seems to have been deemed illegal by the police.
Dagens Nyheter reports the anarchosyndicalist union, SAC Syndikalisterna, broke off a blockade against Systembolaget (the only chain of stores in Sweden allowed to sell alcohol) in Stockholm, to avoid a confrontation with the police.

They were still able to have some effect though, since they stopped deliveries for at least one day. And this is just before midsummer’s Eve, one of the holidays in Sweden that entails the most alcohol.

Hade you seen the film The Wicker Man (the one from 1973)? Midsummer’s Eve is kind of like that, except we don’t burn any wicker men, we just dance around a phallic pole stuck into the ground. And most(?) of us don’t even do that, we just get drunk.

I’m planning to avoid the poledancing and settle for some Drum n Bass. Maybe I’ll watch The Wicker Man too, just to get in the mood…

This weblog

I intend to use this blog to share inspiration.

I will talk about things that inspire me (media/culture/reality) and also talk about things I’m working on.
Mainly my cyberpunk postapocalyse comics project, Piracy is Liberation.

Piracy is Liberation is political theory, filtered through autobiography, masked as fiction
in the form of cyberpunk postapocalypse.

This is me:
www.elftorp.com
www.elftorp.com/freeinformation
www.elftorp.com/infotrip (currently under reconstruction)
www.myspace.com/elftorp

and I’m currently listening to

Ministry – The Great Satan

More on FRA

Several emplyees at Försvarets RadioAnstalt (FRA) have had their personal details put up on the internet by hackers, according to Dagens Nyheter, in response to the new law.

Bommi points out that the worst case of terrorism (which is ususally the justification for these things nowadays, as we all know) was performed by police and military in 1940 and was financed by the leader of one of the parties that are currently in the Swedish government.

»I am Big Brother now«

Welcome to the world of Piracy is Liberation

Ministry – Faith collapsing + Skinmechanix – Overflight

Last week, I found this blog entry by Edge Node: CyberPunk is now

Yesterday, the Swedish government passed a law that allows them to monitor all communications crossing the Swedish border. Which means that they can hear anything we say, basically. Of course, this is nothing new. They’ve been doing this for years.

But now it’s legal.

I think it also says something about the Swedish society in general, that they think they can pass this kind of law without repercussions (and, even worse, that they actually do get away with it).

—

So, let’s encrypt everything we do. Here are some links I hear are good (havenät tried it all myself yet):

OTR (Off The Record encryption) for pidgin 2.x:
http://www.cypherpunks.ca/otr/binaries/windows/pidgin-otr-3.2.0-1.exe

Pidgin is an application for managing different kinds of Instans Messaging, ICQ, MSN, and so on: http://pidgin.im/

GPG (an implementation of OpenPGP) for Firefox:
http://getfiregpg.org/

Enigmail, for Thunderbird (e-mail):
http://redlib.subcult.org/2008/06/gpg-skyddar-din-epost-frn-fra.html
—

That’s all for now. I need whisky.

This is me:
www.elftorp.com
www.elftorp.com/freeinformation
www.elftorp.com/infotrip (currently under reconstruction)
www.myspace.com/elftorp

Ministry – World
»The time is right for decision
The time is right for those with something to say
This is the world I envision
The type of world where people aren’t afraid«