Flash Mobs, Tea Parties and Tocqueville (Tea Party/Tax Revolt updates)

Strategy Page ^ | March 18, 2009 | Austin Bay

[abb]

Last month, a young man posting on a Website dubbed "The Urban Prankster Network" (Headquarters for Global Agents of Stealth Comedy!) suggested a novel way to cool off the city of Austin, Texas, when the inevitable hell of a Texas summer bakes streets and fries brains: a city-wide water gun and water balloon war waged by a "flash mob."

It could happen. American "flash mobs" often involve goofy stunts -- the "digital social network" and "cell phone with text-message" age equivalent of 1950s-era collegians cramming sophomores into a phone booth (when phone booths still existed).

A flash mob organizer might send four accomplices a message like this: Paint yourself blue and show up at Sixth and Congress in two hours. In concept, the ability to communicate quickly and virally (think exponents -- each friend contacts four more friends, and those friends four more) quickly multiplies the number of blue-painted crazies unexpectedly crowding a downtown sidewalk.

A couple of years ago, I overheard two mothers discussing a high school party that included a "flash mob-like" activity. A text message provided the insta-mob location. Alas, one of the moms had to drive her son to and from the mob scene. That's an old lesson reinforced: Even improvised anarchy may require parental logistical support.

San Francisco, however, is fed up with flash mobs that leave litter. The San Francisco Chronicle assured its readers that the city's looming crackdown was not "political, ideological or cultural," but a Valentine's Day flash mob pillow fight left heaps of icky, sticky feathers for sanitation workers -- in other words, clean-up costs. The pillow brawl was billed as "the fourth annual," which indicates less flash and more coordination. Unless event organizers take responsibility for the trash, the city may shut the next one down. Here's the bumper sticker: Leave Trash? No Flash.

One hundred seventy-nine years after the publication of his "Democracy in America," French aristocrat and author Alexis de Tocqueville remains the most insightful analyst of American political mores. Tocqueville didn't anticipate flash mob technology, but he understood them in America's context. He noted in volume two of his masterpiece that Americans formed "public associations" for many reasons, including entertainment. Freedom of association flows from the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of peaceable assembly.

Tocqueville also noted that this freedom is "dangerous." In Europe, crowds signaled revolt. American democracy had produced a paradox, one that had a subtle but profound national security dimension. Tocqueville concluded the "liberty of association" had become "a necessary guarantee against the tyranny of the majority." Civil associations -- presumably even pillow fights -- facilitated political association, and free political association kept American democracy vibrant. Association was the "dangerous means" for thwarting the majority's "omnipotence."

Tocqueville's observations and San Francisco's impending trash-bred quash of flash mobs led me to the Internet. I typed in "flash mob" and "tea party." The Google search produced an article on "anti-stimulus" protests occurring throughout the United States. Scores of demonstrations against congressional "pork" spending, congressional "earmark" spending, lack of oversight in bailout spending and congressional corruption (Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., is a particular target) have sprung up around the United States.

In some cases, several hundred people have gathered -- organized using "flash mob" communications techniques. The tea party protestors connect their contemporary gripes with the same anti-tax and anti-autocrat sentiment that spawned the Boston Tea Party of 1773. The Internet and cell phones are simply swifter couriers for delivering messages from bloggers and protest organizers, the rough contemporary equivalents of the "committees of correspondence" that linked American revolutionaries in the 18th century.

Yes, hyper-left San Francisco insists it has no ideological issues with flash mobs ... but tyrants do. In 2006, Zimbabwe's military cracked down on cell phone companies because they provide "independent connections" (i.e., communications) inside and outside the country. This threatened "national security." The military wanted to limit the outflow of information on Zimbabwe's terrible internal conditions and deny demonstrators a tool for organizing.

Tocqueville wrote: "It cannot be denied that the unrestrained liberty of association for political purposes is the privilege which a people is longest in learning how to exercise."

Americans, he concluded, had learned. The privilege, and its enabling knack, remains revolutionary.

[abb]

Of interest to our ping list. Updates to follow.

[abb]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committees_of_Correspondence

The committees of correspondence were bodies organized by the local governments of the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolution for the purposes of coordinating written communication outside of the colony. These served an important role in the Revolution, by disseminating the colonial interpretation of British actions between the colonies and to foreign governments. The committees of correspondence rallied opposition on common causes and established plans for collective action, and so the group of committees was the beginning of what later became a formal political union among the colonies.

As news during this period was typically spread in hand-written letters to be carried by couriers on horseback or aboard ships, the committees were responsible for ensuring that this news accurately reflected the views of their parent governmental body on a particular issue and was dispatched to the proper groups. Many correspondents were also members of the colonial legislative assemblies, and were active in the secret Sons of Liberty organizations.

[abb]

ping

[xcamel]

A true conservative ‘flash mob’ network would scare the bejeezes out of the leftist/acorn/obummer ‘movement’

[abb]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2209349/posts
Tea Party Website!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2209305/posts
Rumor Has It - Tea Party In Carson City, NV

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2209318/posts?page=1
Let’s Get Organized

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2208983/posts
Thousands Prepare to Gather Across Virginia in Protest of Government’s Fiscal Irresponsibility

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2209258/posts
What’s Brewing Next for the Tea Party Movement?

[abb]

It is my opinion that is almost exactly what our tea party thing is. The parallels to the Committees of Correspondence of the late 1700’s is uncanny.

[abb]

http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/fall98/lastdays.html
The Committee of Correspondence:
Moving Towards Independence

[xcamel]

instant-com mobs are much better though, many can show up anywhere, any time, protest, and disperse quickly...

[abb]

http://thephoenix.com/Boston/News/78501-Please-just-leave/
Please, just leave
Right-wing crackpots plot to abandon the union

http://www.albanyherald.com/stories/20090318n1.htm
Bond issue protested

http://blog.savejersey.com/2009/03/18/the-great-new-jersey-tax-revolt-begins.aspx?ref=rss
The Great New Jersey Tax Revolt Begins

http://coastalbroadcastingnews.blogspot.com/2009/03/assembly-gop-candidates-call-for-tax.html
ASSEMBLY GOP CANDIDATES CALL FOR TAX REVOLT

http://freedomarizona.org/2009/03/18/secret-report-targets-americans/
Secret Report Targets Americans

http://providencetaxdayteaparty.blogspot.com/2009/03/building-head-of-steam.html
Providence Tax Day Tea Party

http://letsgogirl.com/blog/2009/03/18/dinwiddie-tax-revolt-residents-want-assessments-rolled-back-to-2004/
Tax revolt in Dinwiddie County?

http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/DINW18_20090317-221017/234256/
Some Dinwiddie property tax assessments rise as much as 300 percent

http://www.eyeonannapolis.net/2009/03/18/an-annapolis-tea-party/
An Annapolis Tea Party?

http://www.taxrevolt2009.org/2009/03/arizona-tea-party-at-the-state-capitol/
Arizona Tea Party at the State Capitol

[abb]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2209472/posts
North Carolina Tea Party Help (vanity)

[longtermmemmory]

folks for the tea parties.

PICTURES AND VIDEO ON YOU TUBE.

The MSM is censoring so that is the only way for the rest of us to see.

[abb]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/the-weird-contradictions_b_176476.html
The Weird Contradictions of the Tea Bag Revolution

http://www.wsfa.com/Global/story.asp?S=10028021
Montgomery Tax Day Tea Party

http://www.dcexaminer.com/opinion/columns/MarkTapscott/Tea-Party-protests-are-flash-crowds-of-gathering-movement-to-stop-Obama-41431187.html
Tea Party protests are flash crowds of gathering movement to stop Obama

[Arizona Carolyn]

Interesting how things are circling, more interest in de Tocqueville and his insights along with people starting to appreciate our constitution and bill of rights and how fragile it all is when you allow a Marxist to take the helm of our nation.

[abb]

http://rogersparkbench.blogspot.com/2009/03/what-to-wear-to-tea-party-protest.html
What to Wear to a Tea Party Protest

http://www.gop.gov/blog/09/03/18/grassroots-action-obama-v
Grassroots Action: Obama v. Tea Parties

http://virginiavirtucon.wordpress.com/2009/03/18/the-tea-party-revolution-comes-to-virginia/
The Tea Party Revolution Comes To Virginia

http://www.thepolicyreport.net/2009/03/18/where-is-the-no-on-prop-1a-campaign/
Where Is The No On Prop 1A Campaign?

http://politicomafioso.blogspot.com/2009/03/arizona-tax-day-tea-party-april-15.html
Arizona Tax Day Tea Party, April 15

http://taxdayteaparty.com/teaparty/2009/03/more-details-on-lexingtons-tea-party/
More details on Lexington’s Tea Party

http://indianapolisteaparty.blogspot.com/2009/03/volunteer-committee-meetingmarch-24th.html
Indianapolis Tea Party

http://www.historydinnerclub.com/2009/03/richmond-tea-party.html
Richmond Tea Party

http://mcallenteaparty.blogspot.com/2009/03/hey-rio-grande-valley.html
Hey, Rio Grande Valley...

http://fortwayneright.wordpress.com/2009/03/18/fort-wayne-tea-party-april-18th/
FORT WAYNE TEA PARTY APRIL 18TH

http://brendanmcintyre.blogspot.com/2009/03/on-april-15th-tax-day-local-residents.html
Tea Parties Across the Nation on Tax Day: One in Lynchburg, VA

http://roanokernr.blogspot.com/2009/03/roanoke-tea-party.html
Roanoke Tea Party

http://elpasoteaparty.blogspot.com/2009/03/el-paso-tax-day-tea-party.html
El Paso Tax Day Tea Party

http://libertarianrepublican.blogspot.com/2009/03/tea-party-rallies-draw-big-crowds-very.html
Tea Party rallies draw big crowds; Very little national media attention

[abb]

ping

[abb]

http://www.nbc33tv.com/news/baton-rouge-tax-tea-party
Baton Rouge Tax Tea Party

[George Smiley]

PHILADELPHIA TEA PARTY-RELATED THREADS

Final Information: Philadelphia Tea Party 2/28/09 12:00 NOON

Philadelphia Tea Party - After Action Report

UPDATE: Philadelphia Tea Party II - April 18, 2009

[abb]

must read daily here.
http://taxdayteaparty.com/teaparty/

[abb]

George,

take a look at this one. whoever wrote this needs to be on the panel on “special report with brett baier.”

http://taxdayteaparty.com/teaparty/2009/03/tea-party-leadership-going-from-whistleblower-to-muscle/
Tea Party leadership: Going from whistleblower to muscle

[abb]

http://thenewtj105.wordpress.com/2009/03/18/west-tennessee-tea-party/
West Tennessee Tea Party

http://radiopatriot.blogspot.com/2009/03/orlando-tea-party-has-signature-song-to.html
ORLANDO TEA PARTY HAS SIGNATURE SONG
TO BE PERFORMED SATURDAY AT LAKE EOLA AMPHITHEATER