From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Sat Mar 11 2000 - 07:24:50 MST
From: Spike Jones <spike66@ibm.net>, 09 Mar 2000 21:43:28:
>Let me try another angle. As someone pointed out, they are careful
>to never post anything that might become illegal at any time in the
>future. This is exactly what might help defeat tyranny. Any
>government can seize only those powers which *we allow to be
>seized*. If the masses lack foresight and a large percentage post
>that which might eventually become illegal, it provides the motive
>for those masses to prevent the government from making any form of
>speech or attitude illegal. Right?
I don't put very much weight on methods to defeat tyranny that rely
on "mass"-something, mass-movements, mass-media, etc. What I know
best is my local environment, and the person that I can rely on the
best is me. Therefore, my personal philosophy is to "act locally"
and "plant seeds". If I'm talking to someone about something that I
like, or if I'm acting myself with no masks, and that particular
idea or action takes root in the other person and flourishes, then
great. If not, that's OK too. The last thing I wish is to be is an
evangelist. Perhaps this perspective comes with age because I know
that I was a much more active and vocal anarchist in my 20's than I
am now.
I like the methods that help defeat tyranny that use the tyrant's
own stupidity. In other words, methds that are "smart" and can be
applied on a small scale.
I have a few heroes, people that I think are/were good at this
method to fighting tyranny, as well as having other admirable
traits, and I will tell you about one. I will go into some length
about him, because it ties together some of the threads regarding
"transparent society", "recordings that persist for all time", as
well as clever ways to foil tyranny and bureacracy.
His name is Krzysztof Kieslowski, and he was a Polish filmmaker. He
died March 14, 1996, at age 55. You may have heard of some of his
works. He was author of "Decalog", "Three Colours", and "Double Life
of Veronique", among many others. I've not seen all of his films and
documentaries yet, but I've seen a good number of them. I recommend
highly the book: _Kieslowski on Kieslowski_, which is a book of him
talking about his own philosophy, his films and his life.
One of my favorite stories in the book is his description of making
the film called "No End". He (tried to make)/made the film starting
in 1982, when martial law in Poland was in process for 1/2 year.
Kieslowski got the idea of making a film indirectly about martial
law (Kieslowski's films are always about people, but the politics of
the times are often present), in particular, he wanted to make a
movie that took place in the law courts. At that time, the courts
were passing long sentences for trivial matters, such as two to
three years for painting graffiti, for being caught with an
underground newspaper, etc. His concept for the film would be to
focus on two faces in the court: the "accuser" and the "accused",
which already had an irony because the "accused" was not really
guilty of anything.
Kieslowski, after some long effort, got permission to shoot his
movie in both public and military courts. The moment he started
shooting, however, something strange happened. The judges didn't
sentence the accused. They passed some sort of deferred sentences
which weren't terrible at all. Kieslowski says that several reasons
were behind this: 1) by the time he could start shooting, martial
law was already less severe, and 2) the judges were simply fearful in
front of the camera. They didn't want to be recorded at the moment
of passing unjust sentences. They didn't like that this film would
hold a permanent record of their action for 10 or 20 years. And they
were afraid of seeing themselves on film. He said that it's one
thing to sign a piece of paper and quite another thing to appear on
screen at the moment of passing an unjust sentence.
Kieslowski, being the clever man that he was, began to use this new
knowledge against the martial law system.
First, he found himself in great demand by the defendants to film
their cases, because those defendants would surely get lighter
sentences. So he did, and in fact, he needed to hire a second
cameraman in order to make it on time to all of those trials. He
spent about a month going from courtroom to courtroom, and "filmed"
maybe 80 cases, in which was passed no sentences or a light
sentences.
I put "filmed" in quotes, because Kieslowski wanted to make a movie
filming the faces of the "accuser" and the "accused", especially
when the "accuser" was passing an unjust sentence. However, he saw
no unjust sentences. In fact, in a short time, he concluded that it
was useless to even load film in his cameras, so he and his hired
help used dummy cameras in the courtrooms. He said that he used his
dummy cameras to play on the judges' own fears of not wanting to
pass unjust sentences on film.
Kieslowski eventually had to stop, because he wasn't getting
anything on film, and he had to justify (and pay) for his hired
help. He had some bad times immediately afterward too because he had
to state in a letter to the Minstry of Arts and Culture why he
didn't get anything on film, and there were some repercussions, but
he recovered.
I like very much what Kieslowski did, and I wish very much that
he were still alive. And find the book, it's fascinating reading.
There are more descriptions in the book like this one.
Amara
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Amara Graps email: amara@amara.com
Computational Physics vita: finger agraps@shell5.ba.best.com
Multiplex Answers
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"If you gaze for long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into
you." - -Nietzsche
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