More Of Fire Than Blog: Anaal Nathrakh’s Dave Hunt’s Blog #5

In his fifth blog for Terrorizer, Dave Hunt examines issues with downloading…

Downloading, from a weird perspective.

Just got back from a trip to financially beleaguered Greece with Benediction. Makes you wonder about the economy.

So, now for something really catchy and light hearted: The world is dominated by a system which specifically and intentionally transfers power and wealth from the population at large to an unspecified, often inconspicuous, but nonetheless ever-present elite. The dedication of society to this system is virtually total, and its presence touches every facet of our identities and lives.

Could be from a pop song, huh? The so-called ‘Frankfurt School’ thought something along those lines, among many other things. They started as academic theorists in 1930s Germany who were trying to work out why the predicted Marxist revolution hadn’t really happened anywhere apart from Eastern Europe/Russia (where the locals had got it a bit wrong anyway). They started to think it was simply too late – capitalism had already become too dominant, and the people had internalised their roles, too stupid to realise they were cravenly sucking the teat of oppression and calling it freedom (OK, that last bit was me). The ideas and methods of the school were later seized upon and vilified by others with deeply suspect agendas, whose views were propagated via the American Fox network, and traces of this opposition to their theories can even be seen in the manifesto attributed to Anders Breivik – a name which should need no explanation.

People in the UK may remember the Mary Whitehouse Experience. ‘You see that puddle of dirty water filled with cigarette ends there? That’s your swimming pool that is’ etc. Its alumni became quite well known – David Baddiel and Hugh Dennis in particular. Less famous now is Rob Newman. Because he became what some people would call a nutter. Anti-capitalist, anarchist, historian/comedians aren’t particularly common. If you’ve a chunk of time and inclination you can (legally, as far as I’m aware) watch his A History of Oil online. I urge you to take a look, it’s enlivening stuff even if you don’t agree with it.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. In the last 3 years, the richest 1000 people in the UK have become richer by an amount which would allow them to pay off the entire UK national budget deficit and still be left with £30 million each. Note – that’s not their combined fortunes – that’s the amount their fortunes have increased by in the last 3 years.

So, don’t have the time or inclination to think about that system that dominates the world? Fair enough, you’ll live and die regardless. Think it’s irrelevant? Excellent, nice work being a cog in the machine. Go forth, wage slave, and produce. Don’t think it works like that? What are you, fucking stupid?

The internet is many things – one of the most fascinating is that it’s a leveller – anyone with a laptop and a brain can fuck with the programme, and that really isn’t in keeping with the cosy power/wealth amassing plan of those at the top of the food chain. An example: The downloading of mp3s, films etc. really pisses on the chips of the corporate media. (Of course, many people at our end of things also find their freedom fries getting a bit damp, but that’s a different debate for another day.) So corporate puppets democratically elected representatives wade in with things like SOPA. Knee-jerk, clumsy legislation that tries to grab power far beyond its remit, just like legislation is supposed to do (see also: RIPA). Except, much to their dismay, it doesn’t work. The net pretty much tells them to fuck off. This isn’t supposed to happen!

Like I say, downloading is a thorny issue which arguably causes a lot of damage to creative industries. But insofar as it has proved to be a big ‘fuck you’ to the old order, well, just think about that the next time you click.