ideological criminal

Boston has been overcome by hysteria surrounding the Aqua Teen Hunger Force marketing campaign. The swift reaction of the authorities has been to criminalize speech. Screaming fire in a theater has morphed into the mutterings of any counter cultural innuendo. The forces of repression have figured out how to succeed where there counterparts of the sixties failed. At the same time, we find the rebirth of the Dada spirit, so sorely lacking until Aqua Teen has come to save the day. When I first started wheat pasting Meatwads around Boston with his pronouncements on world affairs, I knew there was something deep in the concept of marrying empty pop culture images with that of social commentary. After conversations with friends I was turned on to the Situationalist movement, specifically to the books Lipstick Traces, The Most Radical Gesture, and Beneath the Paving Stones. I had no idea how old of a concept I was dealing with, or that my particular choice of couplings would be prove so prescient. I’m encouraged by the reactions on the two NYTimes blog entries covering the story [1, 2]. More importantly though, I’m encouraged by the reaction of the two arrested for the “hoax” to the media after posting bail (see the video in the second NYTimes link). Finally someone responds with the absurdity for which the situation demands. We need more of this.