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| Internet chatrooms and BBSs (bulletin board services) represent the masturbation of communication. As in jerking off to porn pictures, there is no real communication or communion going on. Chatrooms satisfy a need -- that of real communication, an essential human need -- but you might as well as be talking to a wall. It is like sending your opinions out into the void. However, chatrooms and forums do have their benefits -- if you can avoid being sucked into them. In fact, I am beginning to think that chatrooms and forums could become my artistic medium, a part of my plan to become an Internet presence. I am thinking of recreating myself as an "Internet Terrorist", a "Chatroom Terrorist", in the spirit of Hakim Bey's "Poetic Terrorism". In Poetic Terrorism, Hakim Bey (a notorious American anarchist) writes:
PT is an act in a Theater of Cruelty which has no stage, no rows of seats, no tickets & no walls. In order to work at all, PT must categorically be divorced from all conventional structures for art consumption (galleries, publications, media). Even the guerilla Situationist tactics of street theater are perhaps too well known & expected now. An exquisite seduction carried out not only in the cause of mutual satisfaction but also as a conscious act in a deliberately beautiful life--may be the ultimate PT. The PTerrorist behaves like a confidence-trickster whose aim is not money but CHANGE. Don't do PT for other artists, do it for people who will not realize (at least for a few moments) that what you have done is art. Avoid recognizable art-categories, avoid politics, don't stick around to argue, don't be sentimental; be ruthless, take risks, vandalize only what must be defaced, do something children will remember all their lives--but don't be spontaneous unless the PT Muse has possessed you. Dress up. Leave a false name. Be legendary. The best PT is against the law, but don't get caught. Art as crime; crime as art." In almost all of these respects, my recent cyber attack launched against the GaijinPot forum qualifies as Poetic Terrorism. In retrospect the attack has filled me with an exhilaration and sense of accomplishment, which can mean only one thing -- I gave birth to a work of art, even though that was the last thing I was planning. It was not a conventional work of art by any means, but a real work of art, more authentic than anything I could have contrived had I (for example) sat down and tried to write a poem. It was a very mysterious experience arising from the nexus of coincidence and intent, and the message was sublime.
Before I go on to describe this first GaijinPot attack, first allow me to dispel some myths and stereotypes regarding the archetype of TROLL. Chatroom trolls have a bad name and it is considered to be an insult to be called one. However, I think trolls are in fact a very healthy and beneficial archetype, for they represent the TRICKSTERS OF THE INTERNET WORLD. I quote a very knowledgable source, Brawl-Hall.com: However, caution should be took in separating the recreational trolls from the psycho trolls. Psycho trolls generally stay in the same newsgroup or a related community of newsgroups for extremely long periods of time. As opposed to those trolling for recreation, psycho trolls are generally out for revenge against a select few, or maybe everyone, who he feels has done him wrong. Psycho trolls often are mentally or emotional disturbed and may not even realize that they're trolling. To psycho trolls, what happens on the internet is very real and personal. On rare occasions real trolls will also fall into the above category and will possess the same traits. These are the sore-losers and bottom feeders of the troll community. The most basic form of trolling is to submit a post that will attract the most possible amount of responses, negative or argumentative replies usually preferred, and then to sit back and bask in the chaos that has been created. This troll is simply out for immediate scoreboard and a quick win is enough to satisfy him. The tactic is basic, relatively uncreative, and only touches the surface of what a troll can really do; yet its effective in accomplishing its singular task--to attract attention and garner as many responses as possible. The content delivered by this type of troll generally falls into several areas; It may consist of an obviously foolish opposition of common knowledge, many intentional offensive insults or flames directed to the readers of a community, or a blanket generation on a specific category which is sure to attract a large number of argumentative replies. So, what exactly am I trying to say here? Well, basically -- Internet chatrooms are traps for the unwary, and despite their glamor and glitz offer no real chance of communion or communication. To call anonymous chatrooms a "social" environment is the same as calling pornography "real sex". I have taken it as my goal, to inject a dose of reality into the Chatroom structure, and highlight the illusory nature of the Internet experience. I want to bust it all open, and open the People's consciousness a little in the process. I have decided to become an Internet Troll! I want to change the World, and I want to change the Word. How is that possible? Click here and see my first ever troll enlightenment attack, launched against the unsuspecting poor folk at GaijinPot.com! It could change your life! Hvaða tröll ert þú??
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