Aktion 23 Fnorum

Cramulus hat geschrieben:Just read an article which is against the No-Pants Subway ride. I participated in the No Pants Subway Ride several years ago, I think it was like 2005? No joke, that was probably the most fun I’ve ever had in NYC. So I love the nopants subway ride. Interesting to note that it’s enough of a tradition that there can be a strong reaction against it.

Like many ImprovEverywhere pranks, it’s supposed to be a culture jam, a surprise flash mob, a dream sequence that you wander into and wonder if you’re actually asleep… if it is routine or expected, it doesn’t accomplish the intended effect.

This is what happened to Santacon - what started as an amazing annual prank has, through the magic of tradition and lowest common denominator, devolved into (as Secret Agent HAL PHILLIPS puts it), St. Patricks Day in Santa costumes. It no longer creates an amazing moment of HOLY SHIT REALITY IS WEIRD. It’s more of a HOLY SHIT WHY ARE THERE SO MANY DRUNK ASSHOLES.

I guess the sad fact is that you can’t make surprising people into an annual tradition without it losing some of its magic. A culture jam is about creating a moment of freedom from cultural norms and expectations - you can’t build a culture around that without draining its power.

Lingji, one of the founders of Zen Buddhism, was the original culture jammer . He was known to ask his students a deep question, then surprise them with a violent shout, catapulting them out of their thoughts and into Awareness. But when his students start using his shout, he scolded them. That’s not a surprise, it’s a pattern you learned and are regurgitating. There is no power or enlightenment there, it’s just memorizing a password.

That’s why Guy Debord disbanded the Situationist Internationale shortly after it peaked. The resistance to culture can become a form of culture. Repeatedly violate a norm and somebody will show up to sell T-shirts.