in response to a question i didn't hear, a guy said I JUST GOT OUTTA PRISON TWO DAYS AGO, I AIN'T GOT NO FUCKIN' IDEA
You pass by the same man a week later. He still got out of prison two days ago, and he still ain’t got no fuckin’ idea. You worry that this production is scoped beyond its budget
Love it when my right side keeps me up all night. It’s great
do you have any idea how threatening it feels to be on the other side of a crowd that's that under control?
I've been thinking about occupy again, every few years something comes up that has me re-read After the Fall: Communiques from Occupied California (original is down) If you read nothing else of this, read the section titled Vortex: Wheeler
it's about Occupy UC, and the tactics they used successfully against a protracted police attack. Rules of engagement means that everything's essentially at the level of medieval, and without even talking to each other people just started doing it.
but the structures and rules of engagement and support and infrastructure were already in place -- Even if they'd never done them or considered them in their life, the roles were already familiar. Cyclists become barricades, scouts and runners without thinking about it.
but it's not spontaneous. It's the opposite. the information and tactics were background radiation, people just knew it, enough that you didn't need to give much context unless you lost the initiative and had to be doing things in a more organized way. But disorganized with a lack of practical experience still has it's advantages.
But when you go back and look? all the silly rituals?
it's a show of force; of how many people will work together with fine enough grained control to raise and drop the volume twice without any noticeable outliers. I'm not even sure the organizers realized that.
but in 2017 having a good 25% of the crowd or more instantly becoming repeaters was uh, in at least one case I know of almost certainly lifesaving.
message propagation was 250ms (reaction time average) + time it took for you to say the message + an equal delay (so outward propagation of previous messages doesn't get stomped).
If it was short, a pre-labeled landmark or command for the crowd, you could get full coverage in half a minute.
but it was also subject to crowd veto -- shouting doesn't get very far if the crowd doesn't join, and it gets worse every hop because it expands outward, so less shouters need to cover more area.
(the keyword for this is "human microphone")