[Writingworkshop] Flash Mob

[Neale Morison]

I'm glad you like it. Thanks for the compendium link to the Clay Shirky 
talk. That guy is brilliant. I particularly liked him explaining how we 
behave differently in different community/role situations, for example 
he hardly ever curses when giving a lecture.

Pass away. Maybe send people a link to the poem on my poetry page, in 
case I want to polish it a little:
http://www.nealemorison.org/writing/poetry/index.html#flashmob

Neale

Adam Holland wrote:
> this is great!  I love it!
> May I pass it around?
>
> Adam
>
> On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 8:03 AM, Neale Morison <neale at nealemorison.com 
> <mailto:neale at nealemorison.com>> wrote:
>
>
>     Flash Mob
>
>     What happened to the marching and the banners and the songs?
>     What happened to the cheerful, hairy, motivated throngs?
>     What happened to the folk guitar that was our fife and drum,
>     The swaying to the joyful strains of We Shall Overcome?
>
>     We blinked, that's what, they wore us down, they fiddled with the
>     rules,
>     And now we need to find ourselves some innovative tools,
>     We need to get together on the task that is before us,
>     And use now all we have so they no longer can ignore us.
>
>     We need to grab our cellphone and our keyboard and our mouse,
>     And get online and let them know we're burning down the house,
>     They're big, we're small, we have to change the balance and the scale,
>     And virtually seize them by the short and curly tail,
>
>     The source of information now for group coordination,
>     The disenchanted, disengaged in close communication,
>     The clandestine injustice now exposed to global gaze,
>     The fifteen second sound bite now the google-friendly phrase,
>
>     A zombie walk, a pillow fight, with others you resemble,
>     Becomes a crime where you're denied the right to free assemble,
>     A flash mob drawn by SMS can generate exposure,
>     And posting online happy snaps bring governments to closure,
>
>     When corporate indifference seems truly insurmountable,
>     The secret is it to make them universally accountable,
>     You get the information out to those who sympathize,
>     With email, blogs and websites: galvanize and polarize.
>
>     The fourth estate is failing, in the hands of power and wealth,
>     The print and TV moguls are not in it for our health,
>     It's up to us to network, with our way of life at stake,
>     And let them know we mean it in a manner hard to fake
>
>     Their sites of progaganda are our sites of congregation,
>     Their channels of control are where we make communication.
>     We take a single issue and a strong participation,
>     And clearly let them know there will be no capitulation.
>
>     The target, beaten by suprise, may now become resistant,
>     Spontaneous togetherness must now become persistent,
>     The flash mob must become a movement, in a cause united,
>     Determined, never deviating, focussed and farsighted,
>
>     We're scattered but we're not alone, and many share our goal,
>     We're nodes within a network, parts that constitute a whole,
>     A whole that is far greater than the parts that form its sum,
>     Shall we work together? Then we shall overcome.
>
>     --
>     Neale Morison
>     neale at nealemorison.com <mailto:neale at nealemorison.com>
>     http://www.nealemorison.com
>     31 Maple Ave #2, Cambridge MA 02139
>     +1 617 460 9969
>     nmorison at mit.edu <mailto:nmorison at mit.edu>
>
>
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>
>
>
> -- 
> When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied.
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-- 
Neale Morison
neale at nealemorison.com
http://www.nealemorison.com
31 Maple Ave #2, Cambridge MA 02139
+1 617 460 9969
nmorison at mit.edu