America Has a Posse
I’ve seen the graphics for “Twin Towers Have a Posse” which I initially thought was an awesome idea. The “Andre has a Posse” meme was prevalent everywhere; people spread that ridiculous thing like chain letters. It’s a good concept, but I feel we need to integrate with the anti-war movement. Thus I propose: America Has a Posse.
People accuse the 9/11 movement as being self-righteous conspiracy theorists. We can’t let them frame the debate. They are just trying to cow us into submission; if they accuse us of being overly patriotic or appealing to morality, why shouldn’t we engage in those behaviors more vigorously? We must speak more about taking back the country, regardless of political affiliation, getting honest Americans into governance and peacefully take the reigns of power from the corrupt legislative and executive branches of government. Thus, America Has a Posse.
I, of course, stress voting Democratic in November, but after that my allegiance to the Democratic Party is over unless I see some serious actions to admonish and investigate the Bush/Republican wrongdoings, including a new investigation into 9/11. If the Democrats actually act honorably, I promise I will chill a little bit.
Recent Polls show that one of the issues Americans most unanimously agree on is that the government is not telling the truth about 9/11. That event was so catastrophic to the nation’s psyche. Immediately after that event the current administration took us on a wild ride. Terrorists were the new boogey man. We invaded Afghanistan and then Iraq. Who knows where our troops will be in two months? The madness has to end. Most Americans are in agreement I’m sure.
Being against the Iraq war is encouraged in the Democratic Party. What happens when I broach the subject of 9/11? I get banned from the forum. It’s ridiculous. This central issue, on which the justifications for all the administration’s wrongdoings rely upon and on which a super majority of Americans agree they were lied to about, is not on the table for discussion. People aren’t quite fed up enough with the government to leave the Democratic Party over this issue, but if things don’t change soon this issue could trump the importance of “voting for the lesser of two evils”. Screw voting for evil, America Has a Posse.
9/11 was and always will be an issue that will both unite and divide. At first, we were all together, grieving for our fellow Americans dead and missing in the twin towers. My mother’s friend asked if I was going to enlist, I didn’t, but the thought had definitely crossed my mind. I am not militarily minded at all, but at that time even I considered taking up arms to defend my country. America Has a Posse. That’s what I learned on 9/11.
We can all nearly all (84% is it?) agree that the administration is lying about something related to 9/11. If you don’t buy that, what about the percentage that thinks those in power are blatantly using the attacks to justify any legislation that is presented to them? At least all Democrats would agree to that. How many Republicans?
The point here is, 9/11 can be a unifying issue instead of a divisive one. At the current moment, there are more candidates running for office, on this issue, in the 2006 election, than I can count on one hand. In the 2008 elections, 9/11 truth candidates running as Green or independent may be able to count on at least a small percentage of votes in any given district. There are enough dedicated truthers and frustrated citizens to create a small, but considerable and influential political bloc. How many fence sitters do you think there are in both the Democratic and what’s left of the Republican party? The 9/11 politcal entity could draw fence sitters and frustrated Democrats and Republicans into our fold. We could also force the clear Democratic majority to address the issue of 9/11.
The Democrats must see the splintering beginning. More and more they are confronted by “lunatic left wing conspiracy theorists”. I want to scream at them: WE’RE NOT FUCKING CRAZY, LET’S WORK TOGETHER YOU ARROGANT WHORE. WHY WON’T YOU SUPPORT A NEW INVESTIGATION INTO 9/11?! IF YOU DO, WE CAN STAND TOGETHER. Sorry, but that felt really good. There is serious rage at the Democratic and Republican parties right now, as well as disillusionment and fervent goose-stepping. The time may soon come to actually, gulp, stand up for what we believe in and shuck the two-party system. After 2006, we’ll have two years to band together. If we can establish a serious political presence, we can either actually try and run against Democrat and Republican candidates in local elections (for president, probably just the Dem nominee, unless it is a slathering pedophilic reanimated skeleton) or force the Dems to endorse a new, completely independent investigation into 9/11. We need to unite behind 9/11 like we did five years ago. America Has a Posse.
Let’s redefine what it means to be an American, to be a citizen in a democracy and become the “party” with actual family and democratic values. The divisiveness right now in this country is disgusting. We need to stop acting like idiots on chat forums, disagreeing about stupid shit just to be witty and adversarial. Honestly Democrats, you all owe me an explanation (Republicans for me are beyond hope or at least those corrupt ones in power). Why can you not discuss 9/11 intelligently or even lend any kind of meaningful or rhetorical support to the idea of a new investigation? Become the party of the people or self-destruct. America Has a Posse.
Well, this rant is over. Perhaps I’m being hypocritical by so vehemently opposing Democratic and Republican governance and also denouncing them for being so petty and divisive. Regardless, I have faith that people can shed our differences, come together, and take back this country for American values.
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Formatting seems messed up
I just pasted from word... looks like i forgot to mess with the paragraph spacing.
Well, any thoughts?
fixed the format
but still no comments!
Nothing so bright and sparkly as a nascent meme.
Okay, here's my 39 year old perspective. I don't really know what "has a posse" means. Obviously, I know it's positive, but I don't know where it came from and don't have anything associated with it in my mind, other than, unfortunately, the negative connotations of the word "posse" (ie, rednecks with guns and pick-up trucks -- you know, the uncool type of posse.) I'd be interested in hearing you elaborate on the history and connotations of this phrase, but I think that it may be pretty limited as a meme if people like me don't immediately know what it means and have positive associations with it.
At work right now...
Yeah the main point is less about phenomonology and more about uniting...
Here's some history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_the_Giant_has_a_posse
Read this:
Andre the Giant has a Posse
I like the Posse Comitatus association and overall, I like the sound of "America has a Posse" - but that might just be me. Casseia is right in that we need something with mass appeal.
We'll need an iconic symbol
wherein America, not the Twin Towers are the focus.
The posse thing...
The original, by RISD student Sheperd Fairey (sp?) was a last minute idea for a silk screening class. It was just one of those randome things that wasn't really supposed to mean anything. But because the image and message resonated with a lot of kids with a penchant for tagging street signs, etc. it took on a life of its own. The meme was solid and adapted to any number of "X has a posse" variations. The twin towers having a posse implies that they were murdered and that there are people who will fight for justice for them. I think it's a cute message and one that may interest a certain crowd in the issues we talk about. That said, when I posted the image I encouraged hacks because the original image of andre was itself a hack and hacks are the "recombination"of cultural DNA, or memes. The essence of the posse stickers is now that they are appropriated constantly for various things... Last spring around the time of Harvard's commencement and Lawrence Summers' last days of his disgraced presidency, I found one version that said Larry has a posse. It was amusing to see neocons using this image and it made me think of using it for 9/11 truth. So, yeah, hack away! America has a posse! The Iraqi children have a posse! Karl Rove has a posse! The permutations are infinite, and the point is simple, the image draws attention from people who want to see "who the hell has a posse NOW?" :)
____
Real Truther a.k.a. Verdadero Verdadero
WTCdemolition.com - Harvard Task Force
Thanks Drew, for the
Thanks Drew, for the wikipedia link and RT for the additional info.
From reading wikipedia, I realized that I am familiar with a permutation of the "source meme" so to speak -- a tightly cropped image of what I now know is Andre's face is all over the effin' place here in Portland. However, this may be sort of an instructive example, because I've been looking at this thing in various places for more than five years without knowing WTF it was, or more importantly, having ANY significance attached to it. By the time it made it out here, at least in terms of wide-spread exposure, the whole "has a posse" element had been stripped away.
Therefore, the "has a posse" meme has been less successful than the pure-image meme.
Anyway, I think a "memetically-engineered" campaign would be great for 9/11 Truth.
Well, the guy sort of sold out...
He sells his art under the label OBEY, of which the Andre face close up is the trademark (of sorts)
Approaching this campaign with memes in mind is a great idea, and for those who aren't sure they understand what memes are, they were coined by biologist Richard Dawkins in his book "The Selfish Gene".
That book was about how we can look at evolution not as a struggle of individual animals but as a struggle among the genes that make up those animals DNA. Genes that contribute to survival of the individual are replicated, those that don't aren't. In the end species live and die but the individual patterns of DNA don't care, as long as they are replicated, they are replicated. Hence selfish.
He then comes up with the comparison between animals as biological transmitters of genes with animals, and books, and TV commercials, and songs (etc. etc. that's sort of the point) as similar transmitters of what he called memes, the cultural equivalent of genes.
The comparison is natural, since genes are just information encoded in chemicals that provide instructions for building living cells, tissues, etc. Memes, like genes, survive if they contribute to the survival of their carrier. They also get chopped up, spliced, and recombined through a process of natural selection just like genes, and thus evolve into more complex "meme organisms" aka cultural products.
A good example is like when Vanilla Ice sampled Under Pressure by Queen. That bass line had intrinsic value--people dug it, and so it survived and replicated itself in someone else's work. Now, being associated with Vanilla Ice may have helped it at the time, but now it could be considered a liability. In other words, the infosphere is very similar to a biological environment in which genes compete.
If you really want to get heady about this, you could argue that biological organisms and their cultural creations are really just two different facets of the same pulsating universe, different expressions of energy, and so there is no real reason not to continue to find parallels between the worlds of living things and that of ideas.
So as far as 9/11 Truth (itself a meme) goes, you can study other movements that have achieved similar goals and mine them for the memes that may have helped them succeed (Where's the Beef? could be Where's the Truth? if you had old lady's looking at a tiny 9/11 commission report on a hamburger bun). On the other hand, you can identify memes (like No Plane Theory) that could be detrimental to the 9/11 Truth organism and simply refuse to allow them to replicate any more than they should, by whatever means, ignoring or confronting, that you find to work.
____
Real Truther a.k.a. Verdadero Verdadero
WTCdemolition.com - Harvard Task Force
I highly recommend
The Meme Machine by Susan Blackmore. (Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-19-286-212-X) This book changed the way I think about every aspect of culture.
"Meme cultivation" is at the root of public relations, advertising, and more.