The generous and inclusive self-condemnations get old very quickly. They have the same moral impact as people yelling "armchair activist!" at each other through their keyboards.

Maybe sitting down and doing nothing is not such a bad idea, especially if the alternative is actively perpetuating the same fucking system that got us where we are today.

Scruggs: It's like driving your car, maybe letting go of the steering wheel and kicking back ain't such a bad idea.

Mike, none of us are at the wheel of anything! En masse, all we've got is refusal to cooperate, a refusal to pay and a refusal to lend what pitiful scraps of legitimacy our votes confer.

I don't disagree with the guy on most of the critique, but the implied call to revolutionary action chaps my hide. People need to learn to say "NO!" first and they haven't done that en masse yet.

I thought the first one about using giant puppets was pretty funny.

Rob, that's the one where I disagree with the guy. Protests are boring, dismal affairs (until the cops riot, after which they're scary). Giant puppets help alleviate the boredom.

I took the post to mean that the author favors armed revolution. Otherwise it seems kind of silly. People use puppets for a reason; since TV cares about images alone, it takes a lot of spectacle to get a few words on TV. (I can't be bothered to find out who said that right now.)

If he does favor that, he can always recruit amongst the wingnut militias. They're stupid enough to think a violent coup is a good idea.

Actually, I'm an advocate of free speech practiced to it's most numerically effective advantage - namely putting signs on freeways. I can reach a couple hundred thousand people in a day using this method. Seems a lot more effective than lots of people all holding signs at the same time and place.

Hell of a lot of fun too.

Okay, that's great. Free speech is great. Raising consciousness is a splendid thing. MoveOn petitions are worthless and give the illusion of free speech. But belittling giant puppets and naked peace signs? Come on. By what metric or philosophy can those be dismissed? They, too, are fun and they, too, raise consciousness.

Thanks Scruggs - (love your banjowork btw)I think the metric by which such things might be seen as falling short would be the one the post was framed in, that of the Revolutionary War. Not that running around putting signs on freeways sizes up to say, wintering in Valley Forge, but I do think the Founding Fathers would appreciate at least someone utilizing their right to free speech in conjunction with the fact we have these giant streams of humanity flowing throughout the nation at a rate of over 200,000 per day (in larger cities). Especially when considering media personalities like Hannity, O'Reilly and the like are streaming out to millions every day.

And did I mention it was fun? It is. Even more fun than giant puppets and arguably more fun than nude peace signs. Far more dramatic than stickers. Done properly, freewayblogging alters the very landscape, and erases immediately the appearance of normalcy... the appearance of normalcy being the last thing this country can afford right now.

Those old-timey guys made their signs too small and wordy. Compare:

"To the evil of monarchy we have added that of hereditary succession; and as the first is a degradation and lessening of ourselves, so the second, claimed as a matter of right, is an insult and an imposition on posterity. For all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others for ever, and though himself might deserve some decent degree of honors of his cotemporaries, yet his descendants might be far too unworthy to inherit them. One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings, is, that nature disapproves it, otherwise, she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion."

versus:

"HEY HEY! HO HO! THE MONARCHY HAS GOT TO GO HEY HEY! HO HO! THE MONARCHY HAS GOT TO GO"