me: yo man David: hey, what's the haps? David: (gimme the link to yer irc room again) me: couple things David: go on me: irc.project-pm.org me: we're re-starting OpTunisia David: yeah? me: with some of the Tunisians David: I ain't been followin' events too closely in that country... what's the latest? me: they want to help ensure that a particular candidate is elected rather than one of Ben-Ali's old henchman me: things are good, but the election will determine how things play out me: one of my Tunisian contacts will be meeting with this candidate's campaign soon to coordinate me: aside from helping with that, this is a good chance to experiment with ways to help support pro-liberty candidates in other countries via online groups me: the effort will be organized through Project PM since Anon doesn't endorse candidates, but will include lots of Anons David: define 'pro-liberty.' Unambiguously and unequivocably. me: in this case, someone who is more apt to promote free speech, etc than other candidates David: (right to assembly doesn't get enough mention right now; the attacks on freedom of speech around the world are largely efforts to undermine assembly) me: as in, actual, concrete policies that provide for free action by citizens relative to whatever else is being proposed me: I should say "relatively pro-liberty" since almost all candidates in every election support some form or another of state intervention me: anyway, it's not necessarily important that this particular win, but rather that other candidates don't David: Yeah me: in my view, the thing is to keep younger Tunisians excited, motivated, ready to vote, and especially interested in organizing online David: that said... there's a big difference between an opposition movement (whose goal is to take out a regime) and a political party (whose goal is to set policy) me: Tunisia, of course, has online activism on the brain and owes quite a bit to it me: I know David: like, have you followed all of Ghadaffi's rants for the last few months? me: not particularly, no David: blaming 'kleenix' (wikileaks), nazis, nato, russia, etc etc David: most people dismiss him as a nutbag David: I don't David: he's a 20th century world leader/despot. David: he has no comprehension of 'the internet' as a singular force David: one that is interpretable from the intentional stance David: he sees the whole world against him David: and assumes conspiracy David: assumes its 'external forces' David: well... it is. David: external ideas. David: because the membrane that keeps ideas from infiltrating nations has collapsed. me: not shocking David: not at all. David: most are blind to it nonetheless. me: re: his views, I mean David: oh, yeah. He interprets it as best he can me: at any rate, I'll be writing up some documentation on why we're doing this, what we hope to accomplish, our me: "mandate," etc me: so you can give it some though me: some of these Tunisians will start working out of our server in next week or so David: I'm sorry, I'm a little but occupied right now, but I am quite interesting in contributing where I can David: I do feel I'll hafta be kinda 'caught up', and i definitely believe in what you're doing (though I will be critical whereever I think I find a flaw) me: it'll be a long-term thing, so no rush, just wanted to give you a heads-up me: and to the extent you're in touch with other competent folks who might be interested, please send them in my direction me: this really is a great chance to sharpen our methodologies, see what can be done to counter all of the negative forces in geopolitics, even if just on a small scale David: you ever read Godel, Escher, Bach? me: not at all, no David: okay David: oh hay! David: I have a connection to the leadership in Tel Aviv's movement David: if you need to contact anyone there me: that would be great David: I sorta kinda made that one on my own, sans anonymous ;) David: thing of it is David: the Israeli movement is a little wonky David: everyone's too afraid to address the i/p issue David: there's cognitive dissonance in a huge way me: yeah, there's an understatement me: I avoid that issue like the plague David: I've been trying to persuade him to work on persuading the movement to actually make a firm statement in opposition to ongoing conflict David: in opposition to 'collective punishment' David: and in support of the right to assembly for palestinians David: I think my guy feels that task is too great for him. I've seen a few signs he might be coming around, though. David: he's a neuroscience grad student at tel aviv university, which puts him in a good spot to recognize the novel forms of organization that resemble neurons David: http://organizationofprotest.idemos.org/node/990 David: I don't speak moonspeak, but this is part of what my friend's been up to in Tel Aviv. David: http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=iw&tl=en&twu=1&u=http://www.mysay.co.il/articles/ShowArticle.aspx%3FarticlePI%3Daaatds&usg=ALkJrhhsKuwFPhONF8-uVnTWJAByoawD2g David: if we can fix israel, the rest of the world will fall into place.