Apocalyptic Fun!'s topics - tribe.net

Dead?

BobM — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 03:59:16 GMT

It would apear that this tribe has died......ah well.

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 1 reply

Akira

Max — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:59:04 GMT

As an Aime fan, I wonder how other people see our grates...so Akira, how's it rate(1-5)?

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 1 reply

Why would you survive?

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 21:10:44 GMT

Well???

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 6 replies

I just know some one will rip this off...

Max — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:15:38 GMT

I know this isn't a writing forum but hear me out: We've all seen the gazillions of travel back in time to save the world books/movies. How about travel foreword in time to rule the post apocalyptic world?

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 4 replies

Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"

marcella_salisbury — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:01:26 GMT

Anyone else read it? One of the best post-apocalyptic books I've EVER read.

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 7 replies

Apocalyptic Movies

mastershane — Mon, 07 Jun 2004 07:57:25 GMT

Hey there, my old man has come up with a genre of movies called "Movies that end with a Mushroom Cloud". He noticed that there are a lot of good movies that end with a mushroom cloud, and they all share the same dystopian future! some movies include

Dr. Strangelove
Mad Max
Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior)
20,000 Leagues under the Sea
Terminator 3

and more! anybody got more movies to add to the list?

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 19 replies

My Favorite Novels of a post apocalyptic world

chuck — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 07:27:24 GMT

The Stand...a good combo of sci-fi and horror.
Lucifier's Hammer...not the first "comet" hits earth scenario but one of the better known ones. A bit racist and sexist even for the '70s.
Earth Abides...sets the standard.
The Fire Dies...an interesting premise...all technology stops after a mysterious flash of light. Set in the Pacific northwest. Part of a trilogy.
Midnight Mass...vampires bring down the US. Human resistance starts with an old rabbi and a young priest in New Jersey.
Armaggadeons...a series of short stories from various points of view...everything from a nuclear war (Iceland saves humanity!), to a massive solar flare destroying one side of the world.
When Worlds Collide and After Worlds Collide...the original disaster novels from the early 30's.

Anyone else care to add to this?

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 3 replies

apolocalyptic books, movies

Wed, 08 Dec 2004 18:07:30 GMT

Can anyone recommend some really good books and movies about the end of the world, etc?

Thanks,

Chip

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 13 replies

Top 10 apocalyptic movies ever

ricothunder — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 19:17:47 GMT

What are they?

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 9 replies

Join the Prom Committee

Fri, 12 Aug 2005 20:19:14 GMT

Remember in High school when the cool popular kids
owned the prom commitee and wouldn't let you be
part of it? Well now you can thumb your nose at
those bitches and be part of the Portland Post
Apocalyptic Prom Commitee!

We are gearing up for the Nuclear Winter Formal
2005 and need your help and guidance. We need lots
of dedicated volunteers to make this years party
kick total ass, more than last years.

If you want to feel like you're cool and popular
and be on the commitee, then drop me a line... of
cocaine. No seriously just message me.

scout

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 0 replies

Nuclear Winter Formal 2005!

Thu, 30 Jun 2005 23:36:30 GMT

Hey folks. So remember last year when I put
together the Nuclear Winter Formal: a
post-apocalyptic themed dance that included 2
bands, 4 DJ's, a fashion show, a film, a
post-apocalyptic photo booth and lets not forget
about the MAKE OUT ROOM!

Well, I know it's a little early to be thinking
about the winter time, but I need some idea's and
act's for this winter's show.

I am in need of Post Apocalyptic Themed:

-fashion designers

-Bands

-DJ's

-Sketch Comedy

-Stand-Up comedy

-Films

-Wall art?

-Prize ideas for "King and Queen" of the Formal
(based on costume and character)

...am I missing anything that should be included?

The show is the annual Benefit for Mythmedia
Non-profit. (www.mythmedia.org)

The money will go to make a better website for them!

Thanks for listening and see you around town.

You're friend,

Urban Scout

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 0 replies

Boy have I got THE EVENT FOR YOU!.

zargon — Sat, 25 Jun 2005 19:53:26 GMT

Monday June 27th 2005 new york new york time.Tune in an drooooool.

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 1 reply

Speaking of...

AArtVark — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 03:28:45 GMT

No, far be it from me to believe in hokum... But I vaguely remember something about Nostradamus mentioning, in his circumspect way, that if GW was still president and the Pope croaks, we're in deep shit... Anyone familiar with this?

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 4 replies

Literature...

blank — Wed, 17 Dec 2003 03:40:47 GMT

Well I've only read three books about apocalyptic futures.

1. The Stand
2. The Postman
3. Swan Song (the best one out of the three)

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 19 replies

Career Building

the_angelus — Sat, 20 Dec 2003 20:11:01 GMT

A question my friends and I ask occasionally:

"What are YOU gonna do for a living after the Apocalypse?"

Personally, I make chainmail in my spare time, so I could probably barter skills for food. Plus, if I can get solar panels online, I could make magnets, build generators, and get a nightclub online. :-P

What about you?

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 11 replies

Spare me the politics

the_angelus — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 22:36:26 GMT

If I want to hear peoples' political stances and actions, I'll go read a poli tribe (not to be confused with a poly tribe).

I'm not subbed here to discuss politics. I'm here for Apocalypse Fun!

Anyone else feel the same?

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 1 reply

Nuclear Winter Formal

Mon, 22 Nov 2004 23:34:48 GMT

Urban Scout cordially invites you to...

The Nuclear Winter Formal

December 9th @ Holocene

Civilization is devouring the planet at an accelerating rate. Lets
face it; collapse is inevitable. Most people might poo-poo you with
doom and gloom visions of the future, but we say; why fear it? Why not
celebrate it? Hell, why not take it a step further and prepare for it
by celebrating before it actually happens? We are Mythmedia, this is
Preemptive Post-apocalypticism. On December ninth we are holding
the first ever Nuclear Winter Formal. Here’s the idea; go to the bins
and make a post-apocalyptic outfit (Say... your favorite Mad Max
character, a radioactive mutant, a militant survivalist, a wild
primitivist... you get the point), get a date (It is a formal), then
get on down to the show.

Ever wonder what people did before civilization invented immunity
boosting medications? They made out! Yeah. Swapping spit exposes you
to small levels of germs that your immune system can build anti-bodies
for without you getting sick! We have enlisted our friend DJ MAKEOUT
to spin records in a make out room, whoops, I mean a “Post-apocalyptic
Immunity Boosting Room.”

Have you ever imagined how people will make music in a post-apocalyptic
world? Guess what? We’ve got two bands that can tell you; Cicada
have morphed their instruments with artifacts from a civilized era -
oil drums and briefcases, and The Portland Bike Ensemble play their
bicycles like instruments... of course!

We’ve taken over the minds of local designers and made them think ahead
so we can get a glimpse at Post-Apocalyptic Fashion! Adam Arnold,
Bonnie Heart Clyde, Erin Alvey of The Red Light, Emily Plews of Magpie,
and many more.

Come and see visionary paintings of the our future. On the walls will
be vibrant catacalysmic imaginings that usher the mind toward the
tragic/hilarious climax of civilizations opera painted by Jonathan
Andersen. And what kind of Winter Formal doesn’t have a place for you
and your date to get photos? Not ours! Brett Superstar has painted a
beautiful cityscape of a post-apocalyptic Portland for you and your
date to document this exciting time in human history.

Two “so-called” local filmmakers Peter Bauer and Tony Deis have
finished the long anticipated and mostly disappointing The Adventures
of Urban Scout. A 20 minute short about a man who practices Preemptive
Post-apocalypticism, by hunting and gathering during the day and
partying his ass off at night.

That’s not all! We will be giving away prizes to the Nuclear Winter
Formals “King and Queen.” Which will be judged by Urban Scout himself
on their costume design, dance moves, and how well they make out!

There it is. If you’re not excited about the fall of civilization now,
you’re a poseur.

Thursday December 9th @ Holocene (1001 SE Morrison) 8pm $7-10 sliding scale

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 0 replies

Night of the RepubliNazis: Idiots for Bush say "Boo"

B.Z.B. — Wed, 27 Oct 2004 11:25:47 GMT

Idiots for Bush: the "Ugly American" Monster Mob

B.Z.B. 10-31-04 Metamagic Media Network

The unravelling of the Bush regime, with its increasing desperation and ugliness, is a frightening purple Kool-Aid version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." With neighbors like these, who needs Halloween costumes? It reminds me of that old George Carlin bit about thinking how clueless the average American is-- then realize that half of them are even more ignorant than that.

The Bush agenda is counting on the ignorance and ugliness rampant amongst the under-educated and stubbornly prejudiced rural "Limbaughlands." We've been dragged back to the days when they thought it funny to wear shirts saying "Nuke 'em all & let God sort it out." Now they no longer think it funny-- they're deadly serious.

Try talking sense to anyone around you who still supports Bush, and face the "ugly American" syndrome solidified with patriotic fervor and fear. Most of these well-intentioned, misinformed citizens cannot tell you anything at all about U.S. foreign policy, the Bush family or the CIA, but they know that war is the answer. Be cautious when a group of these "dittoheads" gather into a mob-- they tend to be aggressive, hateful and intolerant.

The most scary monsters in the Bush brigades are those who know they are part of a fascist movement, know the consequences of their supporting the Bush oil wars, know they are ravaging the economy for short-term profit and militaristic tyranny. These are the RepubliNazis, the ones who show up in your neighborhood and begin bullying, threatening, frightening anyone who dares to criticize the Bush regime.

A suggestion for this most historic of Halloweens-- don't dress up as ghosts, witches or aliens this year, dress up in Ku Klux Klan and Nazi regalia and campaign for Bush in prominent places. You will be at the same time representing the shocking truth of our bloody Roman heritage, and unmasking the real monsters among us.

BZB & Irregular Unit 005
Burning Bush http://burnbush.blogspot.com

Planetary Rescue Corps 2012
Chrononautic Intervention Agency http://mutanex.com

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The classic Halloween song "The Monster Mash" has gone political.

The hit's original singer, Bobby "Boris" Pickett, has re-recorded his
song for our latest Flash film, "The Monster Slash." Before we could
even send the movie out to you, the Washington Post and Billboard
magazine picked up the story and sent so many visitors our way that it
crashed our servers. But we beefed up our bandwidth so you can check it
out:
http://www.monsterslash.org
"Monster Slash" pokes fun at Bush & Co's record of trampling our
nation's great outdoors. It's a pretty catchy tune ... turn on your
speakers, have a laugh, and if you can't get the song out of your head,
don't say we didn't warn you

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“By Corrupted Despotism”
As the election approaches, some warnings issued by the Founders leap off the page as never before.
By Jim Sleeper
Web Exclusive: 10.26.04

If some of us anti-Bush Americans seem on the verge of a nervous breakdown in these final days, it's not necessarily because John Kerry is our heart's desire or even because George W. Bush and Co., under cover of fighting terrorism, are spending the country into crushing debt that will drive the social compact back to the 1890s. Nor are we wrought up because a Republican ticket led by two former draft dodgers (as defined by every conservative Republican since the late 1960s, when both men did their dodging), has savaged war heroes like Max Cleland, John McCain, and Kerry himself.
The republic has survived excesses like that, if barely. What really scares some of us is the foreboding that, this time, it won't outlast the swooning and the eerily disembodied cheering at those Bush revival rallies. Something has happened to enough of the American people to make some warnings by this country's own Founders leap off the page as never before.
As soon as King George III was gone, the Founders took one look at the American people and became obsessed with how a republic ends. History showed them it can happen not with a coup but a smile and a friendly swagger, as soon as the people tire of the burdens of self-government and can be jollied along into servitude -- or scared into it, when they've become soft enough to intimidate.
Alexander Hamilton sketched the stakes when he wrote that history had destined Americans, "by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force."
And Ben Franklin sketched the odds, warning that the Constitution "can only end in Despotism as other Forms have done before it, when the People shall have become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other."
Full Story:
http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=8805

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Spymaster calls Bush "universally hated" bully
Hindustan Times - AFP - October 22
British spy novelist John Le Carre branded US president George W Bush as America’s most “universally hated” leader and urged voters to kick him out of office next month.
The author of global best sellers such as The Spy Who Came In From the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy launched the stinging attack on the US leader and his war in Iraq in an editorial in the Los Angeles Times.
“Probably no American president in history has been so universally hated abroad as Bush: for his bullying unilateralism, his dismissal of international treaties, his reckless indifference to the aspirations of other nations and cultures,” Le Carre wrote in the online article.
He also accused Bush of having “contempt for institutions of world government, and above all for misusing the cause of anti-terrorism in order to unleash an illegal war — and now anarchy —upon Iraq.
“Maybe there’s one good reason — just one — for reelecting George W Bush, and that’s to force him to live with the consequences of his appalling actions and answer for his own lies,” Le Carre fumed.
In the piece published on the internet less than two weeks before the closely-contested November 2 presidential election, the author urged Americans to come in from the cold by kicking out Bush.
“Give us back the America we loved, and your friends will be waiting for you,” he said.

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Bush 'most hated' American leader
October 22, 2004
BRITISH spy novelist John Le Carre has branded US President George W. Bush America's most "universally hated" leader and urged voters to kick him out of office next month.

The author of global best sellers such as The Spy Who Came In From the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy launched the stinging attack on the US leader and his war in Iraq in an editorial in the Los Angeles Times.
"Probably no American president in history has been so universally hated abroad as Bush: for his bullying unilateralism, his dismissal of international treaties, his reckless indifference to the aspirations of other nations and cultures," Le Carre wrote in the online article.
He also accused Bush of having "contempt for institutions of world government, and above all for misusing the cause of anti-terrorism in order to unleash an illegal war - and now anarchy - upon Iraq.
"Maybe there's one good reason - just one - for reelecting George W. Bush, and that's to force him to live with the consequences of his appalling actions and answer for his own lies," Le Carre fumed.
The editorial also slammed British Prime Minister Tony Blair for his support for the war in Iraq and lashed Bush for eroding US civil rights through the Patriot Act.
In the piece that appeared less than two weeks before the closely-contested November 2 presidential election, the author urged Americans to come in from the cold by kicking out Bush.
"Give us back the America we loved, and your friends will be waiting for you," he said.

Agence France-Presse

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"He Just Doesn't Get It" was created by Win Back Respect and features their Band of Sisters, a courageous group of women whose family members served or died in Iraq and who are speaking out. It seizes on outrageous footage of President Bush joking about not being able to find the WMDs in Iraq, with a slide showing him looking under tables in the Oval Office. "My brother died in Baghdad on April 29th," Brooke Campbell says in the spot. "I watched President Bush make a joke, looking around for weapons of mass destruction. My brother died looking for weapons of mass destruction."
Brooke Campbell and the Band of Sisters are traveling the swing states, talking about the war in Iraq and their loved ones. For more information about the sisters, their tour, and their other projects, you can check out their website at:
http://www.sistersspeakout.com/
In the final days before the election, President Bush and his allies are getting desperate. Dick Cheney is telling voters that electing Kerry could put major cities at risk of obliteration by a nuclear bomb. Sinclair Broadcasting Corp. tried to pre-empt prime-time programming to air a special on the allegations of the Swift Boat veterans. After claiming that 527s were illegal and "shadowy," the Bush camp has now embraced them, and a new 527 called Progress for America is running an emotionally manipulative ad featuring George Bush hugging a 9/11 family member.
Out in the field, though, hundreds of thousands of volunteers are fighting back, through Leave No Voter Behind and a vast array of other get-out-the-vote programs. We're knocking on doors, making phone calls, and pounding the pavement to get out every last Kerry voter. You should join them if you can. But if you can't, helping to run this ad is one of the last, best ways to fight back and make an impact before the most important election of our life time.
http://www.moveonpac.org/donate/doesntgetit.html

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Open letter to US citizens on the eve of your Presidential Elections in November, 2004.

18 October 2004.

Dear America,

Now that John Kerry has demonstrated himself to the American people as rational and statesmanlike leader, especially compared to the histrionic, contorted and ugly evasions evinced by President Bush during the three debates that were his to loose, hopefully we have embarked on a journey that will culminate in a change of government in the USA.

Just as the rest of the world sits amazed at the malaise that has seized America since Bush took office and which has manifested itself in more extreme forms since he entered into an ill defined and unwinnable war against terror, so too are many Americans evidently staggered by the enormity of the mendacious lies that they have been sold by a deceitful leadership, further distorted by an unquestioningly compliant media.

Seymour Hersh, the veteran journalist responsible for exposing the Pentagon Papers, the Mai Lai massacre and many other low points of recent American intervention and mismanagement in the world, is himself as shocked as any man can be. Hersh, who recently blew open the details of the Abu Ghraib story, has gone on to detail how the Republic of the United States of America has been taken to the cleaners by a small band of neo-conservative extremists with no sense of shame, no sense of remorse nor any degree of guilt at their traitorous self indulgence.

This rotten clan has created a private fiefdom for their friends to feast at an Iraqi pork barrel of unprecedented taxpayer largesse. The war that was supposedly meant to free Iraqis has instead benefited insider organisations like the Carlyle Group with its close associations with both the extended Bush Family and more specifically, its incumbent Presidents' inner circle. It has also inordinately benefited Halliburton, the company vice president Dick Cheney headed up before taking his present post, not to mention a slew of others associated with well-connected conservative Washington Beltway insiders. Tax breaks abound for this coterie while the average American citizen sinks ever deeper into a morass of national debt that threatens to destabilise the entire international financial system.

This cabal has eroded twenty years of improved environmental governance, cocked a snook at the rest of the world and United Nations - which it cynically and ironically attempts to court in a cackhanded sort of way - and has gone on a rampage, striking out in every which direction, not only forgetting why - or who - it first set out to get, but more importantly that it has created a far more unstable world than it inherited, difficult as that is to comprehend.

These extremists, this junta who failed to achieve even a democratic majority, has eroded the US constitution more seriously in the past 4 years than any other government in the previous 229 years of the existence of the USA, including during the time of the American Civil War, in what was arguably Americas darkest hour. The Patriot Act, rushed through congress in the middle of the night shortly after the panic of 9/11 and instituted by the fundamentalist Attorney General John Ashcroft, has swept away rights that have long been considered basic and inviolate. Despite creating Big Brother, the Patriot Act has not secured one single indictment. The real indictment rests upon Ashcroft and his political masters.

The world's people have a special place in their hearts for America, its ideals and its people. Sadly the land of the free and the brave has been subjected to what amounts to a coup by unscrupulous and unconstrained extremists of the most dangerous sort. If Americans give these guys a look in at four more years, it will mean the end of the world, as we know it.

The global majority wishes to reach out to our friends in America, of whom we know we have many, and call for calm and strength. The time ahead is of far more importance for the world than 9/11 or the war on terror; or even, as is whispered in the corridors of the White House between prayer sessions, "the rapture, the rapture", otherwise known as Armageddon.

We know that these particular lunatics in charge of the asylum would be only too happy to 'do His word' (a sexist concept if ever there was!) and engage this Armageddonite rapture. These fruitcakes unquestionably consider themselves amongst those selected to ascend straight to heaven when this rapture descends on the rest of us mere mortals, be it nuclear, chemical or biological or some hexed up combination. The certainty is that the rapture will be of their very making, in one way or another, if we end up with another four years of this corrupt plutocracy. When these dudes accuse others of possessing WMDs, there is some serious projection going on!

In the face of this clannish dementia it is up to rational humans around the world to embrace the interim compromise of a President Kerry and to help steer this sadly stumbling superpower back to its path of goodness so that it can again stand tall again amongst all nations. No nation becomes great simply by projecting power. Power comes with responsibility.

The world wishes to co-operatively rehabilitate this once great nation that has lost its way after being taken on a magical mystery tour of psychedelic proportions by misguided and irrational extremists of the most dangerous sort; its very own leadership.

These are - after all - the very men who created both Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden; their actions now spawn armies of enemies far more threatening than these earlier, evil incarnations. They have spawned legion enemies, literally.

There is a distinctly psychopathic tendency in how Rove, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice and Bush individually, jointly and severally refuse to take any responsibility for the mess they have made and are making; instead they revel in a perverse war-against-everything, from terror to the environment, from their political foes to anyone who questions them. Please, we must stop them not just for the sake of America but for all of us.

Americans, we call you to your senses and extend a hand of friendship in extracting you from the quagmire not only of Iraq, but also from the nightmare of geopolitical reality you have allowed us all to be sucked into.

Together we really can create a better world for all; we can do it with difficulty without America but it would not be the same. Come; stand again on the side of what is good and right, with the global democratic majority. Let's get on with building this world together.

I can say with complete confidence that the rest of the world would welcome President Kerry as a worthy representative of America. I cannot say the same for Bush.

American people, please try to save us from yourselves!
God save America and God save us all!

Completely and utterly sincerely,

Glenn Ashton
A free country, outside the USA.
Planet Earth.

Glenn Ashton is a freelance South African writer and researcher. He spent over a year and a half visiting the USA during the 80's and 90's and maintains close ties with friends who visit and live there. He still likes Americans even if its no longer fashionable.

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THE APPEAL OF FASCISM
By Richard Risemberg
Asia Times

What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling seacoasts, the guns of our war steamers, or the strength of our gallant and disciplined army. These are not our reliance against a resumption of tyranny in our fair land. All of them may be turned against our liberties, without making us stronger or weaker for the struggle. Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage, and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises."
- Abraham Lincoln
What afflicts the people of the United States in these days, that they have developed the capacity not only to tolerate, but even to cherish, the blatant lies and hypocrisies, the injustices, the evasions, and of course the invasions perpetrated by George W Bush and his neo-conservative cabal? How can even conservatives themselves stomach this internationalist, interventionist, activist-court-packing, states'-rights-suppressing cat's-paw of the transnational culture of control that is the only heartfelt homeland of the corporate elite?
Yes, there is opposition, an opposition that comprises most likely a small majority of the country's people - but the supposedly "liberal" media do their best to ignore and even marginalize it, and besides, that yet leaves hundreds of millions here who work themselves into ecstasies of adulation at the words, however fumbling, of this jug-eared cipher, and into equal ecstasies of joyous indignation at the sound of any word that controverts the image his handlers project to the loving masses huddled underneath the balcony ...
Let us not put too fine a point upon it: we are in danger of reverting to fascism.
Fascism is a disease endemic in our species, a periodic fever whose tremors induce a psychosocial orgasm in its sufferers, tantalizing them with physical delusions of both security and power. Far more than its structural and functional ramifications - well illustrated by Benito Mussolini's definition of fascism as "the melding of state and corporate power" and George Orwell's fictional synopsis of a tech-enabled fascist state in Nineteen Eighty-Four - it is fascism's capacity to make a nuanced oppression seem both nurturing and empowering that makes it so dangerous. It is this nuance of fascism - more than the Big Lie techniques and the brute force fascists also employ - that makes the Bush/Cheney administration and its police and propaganda mechanisms a true threat to humanity in general and to the United States - formerly respected as an icon of liberty - specifically.
The fundamental appeal of fascism to the everyday person is threefold. It consists of:
· The promise of security. Fascists typically posit threats, external and internal, that are easily identified but difficult to fight, and then promise to protect you from them - if only you will give them absolute power to do so.
· Relief from uncertainty. It is no accident that Orwell had his dictator characterize himself as Big Brother. The fascist relieves you of the responsibility to make difficult decisions. You simply follow orders - given, of course, by Big Brother.
· A share of strength. Most insidious, Big Brother will let you exercise power over others - as long as you exercise Big Brother's power Big Brother's way.
This last is the stroke of genius. The fascist enlists the sufferers of fascism themselves as petty dictators over those who have been designated as "below" them. And we the people are all too often eager to enlist.
As we know, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. But the watered-down wine of authority is good enough for many - even the feeling that they are exercising power by proxy when they grant it to the fearless leader who leads them into endless fear.
The paradigm is nearly universal. From Josef Stalin's and Adolf Hitler's structured goonocracies to the serried pyramids of corporate middle managers, the pattern is similar: a Supreme Leader (dictator or chief executive officer); a Politburo, or General Staff, or Board of Directors, who, as cronies of the leader, pull the levers for him; a rubber-stamp parliament that always approves all proceedings set before it; a highly involved hierarchy with just enough upward mobility that you may strive a lifetime toward an ever-receding Valhalla without ultimately disturbing its present occupants; a rigid culture that prescribes behavior and in many cases (IBM, Albania) dress and appearance; and an intolerance for any deviation from the chosen definition of the Perfect Man, the Ubermensch, the Good Soldier, the Team Player. (Except, of course, by the leadership elite, who can get as wacky as they please.)
The fascist first makes us all afraid, then makes us all spies, then gives us an enemy, who has often (the Jew, the communist, the jihadi) been hiding right in our midst. And we are almost always ready to drop the dime, to swing the club.
And the definition of the "enemy" is ever-expanding. The US Justice Department, no longer living up to its name, now invokes the USA Patriot (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act against readers of dissident books, against environmental activists - though not, so far, against rich organizations with plenty of lawyers.
We know now that the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with terrorism, and in fact has nurtured it. But terrorism has everything to do with justifying the arrogation of power by these most foully banal crypto-fascists in the name of protecting us against "terror" - a terror they help create by magnifying the injustices our neo-feudalist corporate culture has perpetrated on the world this century past. But we still "stand behind our president". Why?
Remember two things:
· First, it is not who has power that's the problem. It's that someone has power.
· Second, the founders of the United States designed inefficiency into the government precisely to prevent accumulations of power, having had immediate experience with imperial tyrants. Beware those who would bring efficiency to government. A government that's run like a business is a dictatorship.

Richard Risemberg is editor/webmaster of The New Colonist and maintains the Living Room Urban Ecology Webzine and Forum. He lives in Los Angeles.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FJ19Aa02.html

The Road to Fascism
Make that roads, and three great libertarians explained them, says Roderick T. Long.
Is America Becoming Fascist? Eternal Fascism:
Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt
The Danger of American Fascism:
With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.
What is Fascism? Some General Ideological Features

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Le Carre on the Lost Crusade

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit

Toronto Globe and Mail - Oct 13, 2001
http://www.globeandmail.com/

We Have Already Lost
by John Le Carre

"The Bombing Begins!" screams today's headline of the normally
restrained Guardian. "Battle Joined," echoes the equally cautious
International Herald Tribune, quoting George W. Bush. But with whom
is it joined? And how will it end? How about with Osama bin Laden in
chains, looking more serene and Christ-like than ever, arranged
before a tribune of his vanquishers with Johnny Cochran to defend
him? The fees won't be a problem, that's for sure.

Or how about with Osama bin Laden blown to smithereens by one of
those clever bombs we keep reading about that kill terrorists in
caves but don't break the crockery? Or is there a solution I haven't
thought of that will prevent us from turning our archenemy into an
arch martyr in the eyes of those for whom he is already semi-divine?

Yet we must punish him. We must bring him to justice. Like any sane
person, I see no other way. Send in the food and medicines, provide
the aid, sweep up the starving refugees, maimed orphans and body
parts -- sorry, "collateral damage" -- but Osama bin Laden and his
awful men, we have no choice, must be hunted down.

Unfortunately, what America longs for at this moment, even above
retribution, is more friends and fewer enemies. And what America is
storing up for herself, and so are we Brits, is yet more enemies.
Because after all the bribes, threats and promises that have patched
together this rickety coalition, we cannot prevent another suicide
bomber being born each time a misdirected missile wipes out an
innocent village, and nobody can tell us how to dodge this devil's
cycle of despair, hatred and -- yet again -- revenge.

The stylized television footage and photographs of this bin Laden
suggest a man of homoerotic narcissism, and maybe we can draw a grain
of hope from that. Posing with a Kalashnikov, attending a wedding or
consulting a sacred text, he radiates with every self-adoring gesture
an actor's awareness of the lens. He has height, beauty, grace,
intelligence and magnetism, all great attributes, unless you're the
world's hottest fugitive and on the run, in which case they're
liabilities hard to disguise.

But greater than all of them, to my jaded eye, is his barely
containable male vanity, his appetite for self-drama and his closet
passion for the limelight. And, just possibly, this trait will be his
downfall, seducing him into a final dramatic act of self-destruction,
produced, directed, scripted and acted to death by Osama Bin Laden
himself.

By the accepted rules of terrorist engagement, of course, the war is
long lost. By us. What victory can we possibly achieve that matches
the defeats we have already suffered, let alone the defeats that lie
ahead? "Terror is theatre," a soft-spoken Palestinian firebrand told
me in Beirut in 1982. He was talking about the murder of Israeli
athletes at the Munich Olympics 10 years before, but he might as well
have been talking about the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. The late
Mikhail Bakunin, evangelist of anarchism, liked to speak of the
Propaganda of the Act. It's hard to imagine more theatrical, more
potent acts of propaganda than these.

Now Mr. Bakunin in his grave and Mr. bin Laden in his cave must be
rubbing their hands in glee as we embark on the very process that
terrorists of their stamp so relish: as we hastily double up our
police and intelligence forces and award them greater powers, as we
put basic civil liberties on hold and curtail press freedom, impose
news blackouts and secret censorship, spy on ourselves and, at our
worst, violate mosques and hound luckless citizens in our streets
because we are afraid of the colour of their skin.

All the fears that we share -- Dare I fly? Ought I to tell the police
about the weird couple upstairs? Would it be safer not to drive down
Whitehall this morning? Is my child safely back from school? Have my
life's savings plummeted? -- are precisely the fears our attackers
want us to have.

Until Sept. 11, the United States was only too happy to plug away at
Vladimir Putin about his butchery in Chechnya. Russia's abuse of
human rights in the North Caucasus, he was told -- we are speaking of
wholesale torture, and murder amounting to genocide -- was an
obstruction to closer relations with NATO and the United States.
There were even voices -- mine was one -- that suggested Mr. Putin
join Slobodan Milosevic on trial in The Hague: Let's do them both
together. Well, goodbye to all that. In the making of the great new
coalition, Mr. Putin looks a saint by comparison with some of his
bed-fellows.

Does anyone remember any more the outcry against the perceived
economic colonialism of the G8? Against the plundering of the Third
World by uncontrollable multinational companies? Seattle, Prague and
Genoa presented us with disturbing scenes of broken heads, broken
glass, mob violence and police brutality. Tony Blair was deeply
shocked. Yet the debate was a valid one, until it was drowned in a
wave of patriotic sentiment, deftly exploited by corporate America.

Drag up Kyoto these days, you risk the charge of being
"anti-American." It's as if we have entered a new Orwellian world
where our personal reliability as comrades in the struggle is
measured by the degree to which we invoke the past to explain the
present. Suggesting there is a historical context for the recent
atrocities is, by implication, to make excuses for them: Anyone who
is with us doesn't do that; anyone who does, is against us.

Ten years ago, I was making an idealistic bore of myself by telling
anyone who would listen that, with the Cold War behind us, we were
missing a never-to-be repeated chance to transform the global
community.

Where was the Marshall Plan? I pleaded. Why weren't young men and
women from the U.S. Peace Corps, Britain's Voluntary Service Overseas
and their continental European equivalents pouring into the former
Soviet Union by the thousands?

Were was the world-class statesman and the man of the hour, with the
voice and vision to define for us the real, if unglamorous, enemies
of [hu]mankind: poverty, famine, slavery, tyranny, drugs, brush-fire
wars racial and religious intolerance, greed?

Now thanks to Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants, all our leaders
are world-class statesment, proclaiming their voices and visions in
distant airports while they feather their electoral nests.

There has been unfortunate talk -- and not only from Silvio
-- Berlusconi of a "crusade." Crusade, of course, implies a delicious
-- ignorance of history. Was Mr. Berlusconi really proposing to set free the holy places of Christendom and smite the heathen? Was George W. Bush? And am I out of order in recalling that we (Christians) actually lost the Crusades? But all is well: Signor Berlusconi was misquoted and the presidential reference is no longer operative.

Meanwhile, Mr. Blair's new role as America's fearless spokesman
continues apace. Mr. Blair speaks well because Mr. Bush speaks badly.
Seen from abroad, Mr. Blair in this partnership is the inspired elder
statesman with an unassailable domestic power base, whereas Mr. Bush
-- dare one say it these days? -- was barely elected at all.

But what exactly does Mr. Blair, the elder statesman, represent? Both
he and the U.S. President at this moment are riding high in their
respective approval ratings, but both are aware, if they know their
history books, that riding high on Day One of a perilous overseas
military operation doesn't guarantee you victory come election day.

How many American body bags can Mr. Bush sustain without losing
popular support? After the horrors of the Twin Towers and the
Pentagon, the American people may want revenge, but they're on a very
short fuse about shedding more American blood.

Mr. Blair -- with the whole Western world to tell him so, except for
a few sour voices back home -- is America's eloquent white knight,
the fearless, trusty champion of that ever-delicate child of the
mid-Atlantic, the "Special Relationship."

Whether that will win Mr. Blair favour with his electorate is another
matter because the Prime Minister was elected to save the country
from decay, and not from Osama bin Laden. The Britain he is leading
to war is a monument to 60 years of administrative incompetence. Our
health, education and transport systems are on the rocks. The
fashionable phrase these days describes them as "Third World," but
there are places in the Third World that are far better off than
Britain.

The country Mr. Blair governs is blighted by institutionalized
racism, white male dominance, chaotically administered police forces,
a constipated judicial system, obscene private wealth and shameful
and unnecessary public poverty. At the time of his re-election, which
was characterized by a dismal turnout, Mr. Blair acknowledged these
ills and humbly admitted that he was on notice to put them right.

So when you catch the noble throb in his voice as he leads us
reluctantly to war, and your heart lifts to his undoubted flourishes
of rhetoric, it's worth remembering that he may also be warning you,
sotto voce, that his mission to mankind is so important that you will
have to wait another year for your urgent medical operation and a lot
longer before you can ride in a safe and punctual train. I am not
sure that this is the stuff of electoral victory three years from
now. Watching Tony Blair, and listening to him, I can't resist the
impression that he is in a bit of a dream, walking his own dangerous
plank.

Did I say "war?" Has either Mr. Blair or Mr. Bush, I wonder, ever
seen a child blown to bits, or witnessed the effect of a single
cluster bomb dropped on an unprotected refugee camp? It isn't
necessarily a qualification for generalship to have seen such dread
things -- and I on't wish either of them the experience -- but it
scares me all the same when I'll watch uncut, political faces shining
with the light of combat, and hear preppy political vices steeling my
heart for battle.

And please, Mr. Bush -- on my knees, Mr. Blair -- keep God out of
this. To imagine God fights wars is to credit Him with he worst
follies of [hu]mankind. God, if we know anything about Him, which I
don't profess to, prefers effective food drops, dedicated medical
teams, comfort and good tents for the homeless and bereaved, and
without strings, a decent acceptance of our past sins and a readiness
to put them right. He prefers us less greedy, less arrogant, less
evangelical, and less dismissive of life's losers.

It's not a new world order, not yet, and it's not God's war. It's a
horrible, necessary, humiliating police action to redress the failure
of our intelligence services and cur-blind political stupidity in
arming and exploiting fanatics to fight the Soviet invader, then
abandoning them to a devastated, leaderless country. As a result,
it's our miserable duty to seek out and punish a bunch of modern
medieval religious zealots who will gain mythic stature from the very
death we propose to dish out to them.

And when it's over, it won't be over. The shadowy bin Laden armies,
in the emotional aftermath of his destruction, will gather numbers
rather than wither away. So will the hinterland of silent
sympathizers who provide them with logistical support.

Cautiously, between the lines, we are being invited to believe that
the conscience of the West has been reawakened to the dilemma of the
poor and homeless of the Earth.

And possibly, out of fear, necessity and rhetoric, a new sort of
political morality has, indeed, been born. But when the shooting dies
and a seeming peace is achieved, will the United States and its
allies stay at their posts or, as happened at the end of the Cold
War, hang up their boots and go home to their own backyards? Even if
those backyards will never again be the safe havens they once were.

[John le Carre is the author of 18 novels, including his most recent,
"The Constant Gardener."]

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Kerry Campaign Leaks Nader Appointment:
Tuesday, 26 October 2004, 12:12 pm
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0410/S00319.htm

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"I hold that man is in the right who is most closely in league with the future,"
-- Henrik Ibsen

"When I dare to be powerful-- to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid."
-- Audre Lorde

"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will."
-- Frederick Douglass

"The two greatest obstacles to democracy in the United States are, first, the widespread delusion among the poor that we have a democracy, and second, the chronic terror among the rich, lest we get it." -- Edward Dowling

BriarPatch Planetary Log
http://briarholler.blogspot.com

MetaMagic WorldNews
http://metamagic.org/worldnews

MetaMagic News of the Strange
http://metamagic.org/strange

MetaMagic EarthChanges
http://metamagic.org/gaia

Planetary Rescue Corps
http://mutanex.com

"Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe."
H.G. Wells

"Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal." -- Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything."
-- Joseph Stalin

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 0 replies

Instructions?

the_angelus — Sat, 02 Oct 2004 01:03:14 GMT

I love the "Zombie Survival Guide", lotsa apocalypse fun there.

Anyone know anything about "The Field Guide To The Apocalypse?"

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 0 replies

Avian influenza

ashton — Tue, 31 Aug 2004 19:24:18 GMT

Ducks and Pigs and Humans, oh my!

Avian influenza: H5N1 detected in pigs in China
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/en/
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 0 replies

Different apocoliptic scenerios

Mayo — Tue, 31 Aug 2004 13:08:05 GMT

What are some of the best ones you can think of? (massive volcano, aliens and meteor scenerios need not apply)

This is my favorite:

After massive scandals involving fraud at the executive level of government shakes up consumer confidence and sends the President and Vice-President to prison. Citizens start pulling in their stock market investments, our economy is in ruins. A major power shift divides our nations. The long reaching effects destablize foriegn markets. A power faction in the US is rising to power fast and the entrenched govt. tries to stifle their growth. Militancy grows in America and the domestic guerilla assaults are driving the moral of the military to dirt. While the US is weak, a couple countries start positioning themselves to attack previously protected targets. The US allies are also dealing with agressive militant factions. As things rile to a early crecendo, the first missles are launched. The retalitory strikes are subsequently launched. Pakistan, India, Iran, Israel, etc. all become open battlefields. China tries to maintain N. Korea and they experience the first nuclear weapon. The dominos fall from there.

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 2 replies

All your money are belong to base

artifex — Mon, 24 May 2004 04:17:29 GMT

http://wire.oddlyzen.com/2004/05/cost-of-war.html

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 1 reply

Television...

blank — Wed, 17 Dec 2003 03:42:46 GMT

The only TV show I know with this kind of setting is that one with Dillion (90210) and Theo (Cosby Show) in it. I haven't seen it, have you?

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 10 replies

What about games?

XcentricOrbit — Wed, 17 Dec 2003 16:48:05 GMT

Have to mention my all time favorite PC game series, Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game, and the old 80's game the series originated from, Wasteland. Check out: http://www.interplay.com/fallout/ and http://www.interplay.com/fallout2/ for more information.

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 6 replies

Dr. Strangelove

artifex — Wed, 17 Dec 2003 05:08:49 GMT

This movie was one of my favorites. Let's assemble a random collection of quotes, facts, etc. about it.

* "He'll see the Big Board!"

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 5 replies

Executioners

Evil Larry — Tue, 30 Dec 2003 05:27:10 GMT

In remberance of Anita Mui, who recently passed away, I'm recommending EXECUTIONERS. It's a semi-sequel to THE HEROIC TRIO with Anita Mui, Maggie Cheung, and Michelle Yeoh trying to keep order in a post-apcalypse Hong Kong. Like TANK GIRL, much of the action has to deal with searching for non-contaminated water.

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 3 replies

the end is near!

braintonic — Tue, 30 Dec 2003 23:58:24 GMT

http://members.cox.net/impunity/endofworld.swf

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 0 replies

The End

artifex — Thu, 25 Dec 2003 10:48:59 GMT

http://members.cox.net/impunity/endofworld.swf

HaHaHAhaahAHHHAhHAahAha.

posted in Apocalyptic Fun! - 2 replies

New tribe - Atomic Cafe

spam — Wed, 24 Dec 2003 22:18:12 GMT

I have created a new tribe that may interest members of this tribe - Atomic Cafe. It's a place for discussion, serious & otherwise, of cold war culture and politics.

Topics include the the effects of the cold war on American popular culture, the underlying political struggles both at home and abroad including the red scare, and discussion of the development of atomic technology itself.

http://atomiccafe.tribe.net

Feel free to join!

Apocalyptic Fun!'s topics - tribe.net

Dead?

Akira

Why would you survive?

I just know some one will rip this off...

Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"

Apocalyptic Movies

My Favorite Novels of a post apocalyptic world

apolocalyptic books, movies

Top 10 apocalyptic movies ever

Join the Prom Committee

Nuclear Winter Formal 2005!

Boy have I got THE EVENT FOR YOU!.

Speaking of...

Literature...

Career Building

Spare me the politics

Nuclear Winter Formal

Night of the RepubliNazis: Idiots for Bush say "Boo"

Instructions?

Avian influenza

Different apocoliptic scenerios

All your money are belong to base

Television...

What about games?

Dr. Strangelove

Executioners

the end is near!

The End

New tribe - Atomic Cafe

Movies...