Pranks...they can work great. one I remeber that was quite good but ultimately not effective was back in the run up to gulf war one. there were small anti war protests at the city county building and the capitolin Madison until one day a protestor said he would burn a puppy on the steps of the capitol to protest the bombing of Iraq. not too surprisingly hundreds and hndreds of pro puppy folks showed up to save the puppy and no doubrt to savage the supposed puppy burner...
Ironic in the extreme that puppies lives are worth morwe than humans but most people chose not to get the joke including of course the right wing squawkers who used it to discredit the anti war people.. thus, when you do this sort of thing you have to think carefully about how it will play.
for a bit of insight into how some folks fought back with pranks during the horrible days of reagan and before him, nixon this would be some essential reading: http://www.researchpubs.com/books/prankprod.php
What the supporters of the Troy Library executed was a very clever public relations campaign utilizing grassroots forces. Pranks on the other hand are just pranks.
The puppy burning protest was the work of the two person "Nihilist Workers Party" and was directed against the obscene complaisance of Americans toward Reagan's wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador. At the time it was obvious to me that this was what --back in the day-- was known as "Guerrilla Theater". But the 80's were a humorless time and the Liberals seemed to go especially bat-shit crazy over this. To this very day people still think some anarchist was going to actually burn a puppy. As H.L. Mencken put it: "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people".
Pranks...they can work great. one I remeber that was quite good but ultimately not effective was back in the run up to gulf war one. there were small anti war protests at the city county building and the capitolin Madison until one day a protestor said he would burn a puppy on the steps of the capitol to protest the bombing of Iraq. not too surprisingly hundreds and hndreds of pro puppy folks showed up to save the puppy and no doubrt to savage the supposed puppy burner...
ReplyDeleteIronic in the extreme that puppies lives are worth morwe than humans but most people chose not to get the joke including of course the right wing squawkers who used it to discredit the anti war people.. thus, when you do this sort of thing you have to think carefully about how it will play.
for a bit of insight into how some folks fought back with pranks during the horrible days of reagan and before him, nixon this would be some essential reading: http://www.researchpubs.com/books/prankprod.php
What the supporters of the Troy Library executed was a very clever public relations campaign utilizing grassroots forces. Pranks on the other hand are just pranks.
ReplyDeleteThe puppy burning protest was the work of the two person "Nihilist Workers Party" and was directed against the obscene complaisance of Americans toward Reagan's wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador. At the time it was obvious to me that this was what --back in the day-- was known as "Guerrilla Theater". But the 80's were a humorless time and the Liberals seemed to go especially bat-shit crazy over this. To this very day people still think some anarchist was going to actually burn a puppy. As H.L. Mencken put it: "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people".
"That Whole Puppy-Burning Thing"
http://www.missioncreep.com/slackjaw/1997/pupburn.html
“If We Only Reach One Person, Then It Was All Worthwhile”
http://www.electronpress.com/slackjaw/SLACKJAW_20080504.html
Hmm- what issue could this be used on in WI?
ReplyDeleteWe should think about that between now and the 2014 midterm elections if we're gonna have any chance of defeating Scott Walker!!!!!
ReplyDelete