PROTESTING THE MONKEY KING WITH THE TRUE PATRIOTS by Ebon Fisher

Very interesting piece by one of the early networked media artists.
Ebon helped organize a big warehouse happening in Brooklyn called
'Organism' back in '93. First time I had ever heard the term 'Web
Jam'.



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PROTESTING THE MONKEY KING WITH THE TRUE PATRIOTS

Ebon Fisher, March, 2003
[email protected]


"We spread disproportionate terror and confusion in the public mind,
arbitrarily linking the unrelated problems of terrorism and Iraq. The
result, and perhaps the motive, is to justify a vast misallocation of
shrinking public wealth to the military and to weaken the safeguards
that protect American citizens from the heavy hand of government…
When our friends are afraid of us rather than for us, it is time to
worry. And now they are afraid."

–John Brady Kiesling, Political Counselor in U.S.
Embassy Athens, in his letter of resignation to Secretary of State
Colin Powell, Feb. 27th, 2003

I've been too busy struggling to feed a family to fully realize what
has happened since King George took power. "Took power" is the
kindest phrase I can muster for that down-right shadey election. I
thought I had kept abreast of the unelected-one's pro-corporate,
pro-billionaire agenda, but I hadn't realized how deeply the
corporate "royalty" and their military attachments had slipped in and
taken over our culture and infrastructure. We're living in a branch
of history that wasn't supposed to happen. Even the most alarmed
among us is sleep-walking through this strange aftermath of the
presidential elections. We are all numb from years of peace and
potato chips to realize the extent of the danger we are in.

My own alarm is now quickening to such an extent that I can barely
focus on the mounting evidence of the Bush Administration's
omni-directional hatred. US Diplomat, John Brady's resignation has
just come to my attention and the stepping up of attacks in the
no-fly zone is all over the airwaves. CNN's jargon has switched from
"war preparations" to "war" with nary a bugle or a UN vote. The
international press is up in arms over recent evidence that the US
National Security Agency has begun spying on UN Security Council
Delegates. With or without the UN, the war is likely to be pushed
through, setting the US on a collision course with the entire
law-abiding planet. Colonel Randy Gangols said on PBS tonight that
the urban war zones US soldiers are preparing to attack are "the
worst environment the military can operate in." Cold, blue-veined war
pundits are talking about preparations for a 30\% US casualty rate.
That's thousands upon thousands of dead US citizens, real friends and
family marching to devastation. It's all too horrible to
conceptualize. Thankfully, the Turkish parliament's vote to refuse US
troop deployment has given us a few days to breath. But I feel like a
certified asthmatic.

My rude awakening to our country's perilous transfiguration was at
the peace march in New York two weeks ago. My wife and I had driven
several hours with our three-year-old from the Philadelphia area to
attend the February 15th rally. It had sounded like a wonderful
chance to express our dismay over a slew of US problems –from the
lack of jobs, to the wholesale dismantling of workers' and womens'
rights, to the unaffordable and dangerously antagonistic war
build-up. Our reckless King needed to hear from the people. Or so we
thought. The reception from New York