Forms of direct action: Pranks and hacks

When I was looking at the various forms of direct action, I was surprised to see pranks. Then I remembered the soup on the Van Gogh. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c243v5m0r0lo 

That would send things off in a completely different direction, so I am going to get back to that another day. 

Otherwise there were mentions of stink, critter, and paint bombs, plus pieing people in the face. 

Those all seem pretty juvenile and possibly dangerous, so I wasn't finding that particularly inspirational.

Then, with hacktivism, that is so far outside my area of knowledge that I don't even feel qualified to comment on it, except that I know that a lot of doxxers are doing terrible things while feeling like they are great.

That all goes into looking at motives and means, which should be the focus of Thursday's post.

I'm not just going to skip it over, though, for two reasons.

One is a mention of The Yes Men, who have used some impersonation and web pages to do at least some things that seem like they might have helped.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yes_Men 

Admittedly, acquiring a domain that is not currently in use does not require hacking, but it can be effective. Therefore, I suspect there might be hacking options that would lead to being more effective.

The other thing that is making me think again was something I read in Door to Door: The Magnificent, Maddening, Mysterious World of Transportation by Edward Humes.

In writing about the difficulties of improving traffic, where things like added lanes and more traffic cops regularly fail, he said France had put mimes at intersections who would mock those driving badly. 

I know, mime implementation sounds so extreme, but it worked.

From the footage I have seen of French traffic, it's hard to believe anyone would even notice. I have to assume that the success is due largely to attention being drawn and maximizing the social scorn. If you cut one person off, they may be the only person to notice. Once the mime points it out, everyone there knows.

I'm not saying that would work here in the States. First of all, France would surely have a greater supply of mimes available; I am not jealous of that.

Also, if the issue is being called out for bad behavior and feeling some shame for that, our society may have lost some susceptibility for that over the past few years.

However, it reminds me that creativity can come up with surprising wins.

I don't have any suggestions in this category, and even if I had a great hacking idea I would not be able to carry it out.

That may not be true for you.

Do think about what you are doing, and why, and potential consequences to you and others. (A lot of pranks and hacks could carry legal penalties.)

Don't stop thinking.