The Revolution: Typewritten?
The other day, we watched "California Typewriter": a brilliant documentary about, at once, a struggling repair shop -- a last bastion, really -- and the relationship between humans and technology.
I highly recommend it on its own. But I'm writing about it here because of a topic it touches on toward the end.
We C99ers have discussed, and continue to discuss, several intersecting issues around societal and political change: How, in this age of media censorship, can we reach hearts and minds in order to change them? What happens when the repeal of Net Neutrality shuts down dissent once and for all? How can we convince people to shut off their phones for once, and actually pay attention to what's happening around them? What acts of subtle (or not-so-subtle) subversion can we engage in, in order to change reality for the better?
Most often, it seems there are no good answers. Perhaps there still aren't.
But: but.
What if the revolution were typewritten?
(For a little more context, you can watch this short clip from the end of the movie).
I'm interested to hear your thoughts!
Comments
Like Committees of
Like Committees of Correspondence from a long time ago. I like it. Typewritten sheets explaining what happened to Rosa Parks and what to do about it is what got the Montgomery Bus Boycott going. As long as folks keep coming up with good ideas we still have hope.
Yes.
Hope is in short supply these days, but it's still out there!
Our future may be found in our past
I have written that in comments regarding our railway system, but perhaps it may be true in many other ways. Technology has made our lives more efficient but also more complex. And too much complexity can cause us to lose sight of our human values
So perhaps the future of the social revolution will be in the hands of a new generation of pamphleteers, such as Thomas Paine. I hope so.
I loved the video clip, btw.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Thanks, GG.
If you liked the clip, I think you'll like the whole documentary.
I also thought of Martin Luther. Let's start nailing stuff to the doors of Congress.
Nails, tacks, and tape
Better yet, let's start nailing stuff to the doors of the local library, the neighborhood McDonald's, the hardware store, the post office ... everywhere that isn't digital.
One page, typewriter font. Mimeograph not needed; laser printers print for very little cost per sheet. Use cheap, recycled paper. No typewriter? No problem - use that old outdated computer you've got. Just do not allow it to connect to the Internet.
Hey Eagles92. Good topic that piques me in mutliple directions
First off, thanks for the recommendation. Looks like a film we'd love (is it on Netflix?).
When a couple of folks and I started our own local Occupy post OWS in early 2012, we experienced constantly the kind of outpouring of support from like-minded folks to which we're alluding to in this thread. The idea being, when we put ourselves out there in public the response is usually very warmly embraced by the majority (yeah you'll get heckled by the occasional knuckle-dragging Limbaugh idiot and more often than that ignored by the deer-in-the-headlights folk who just wished it would all go away without having to discuss it).
Just for a few examples. After we made up our initial flyer and pasted them on stores and lampposts around town, we were pleasantly surprised when 20-25 people showed up. From there it just took off. Seemed every time we asked if anyone knew someone who could make or produce something we needed (i..e. pamphlets, a banner, bookshelves, lighting, paint), people would extend themselves, come out of the woodwork or put us in touch with other sympathizers.
When we mentioned at our general assembly meeting that we wanted to make up more flyers and pamplets but lacked a printer, a guy who worked for a school district chimed in and simply said, "how many do you need?" A few days later he was outside my apartment with a stack of yellow and white copies. Another time when we were protesting in front of the huge Citibank building in LIC, we went to a copier at the local college nearby to get copies of a flyer to hand out. When we told him what it was for, the Middle Eastern copy guy said they'd be free. He also insisted on coming back anytime we needed and we would give us what we needed gratis.
When we attempted to open a community center/bookstore/activist hub that was aborted (long story), again, the outpouring of individuals, many of whom we'd never met who were friends of friends, was such that we were constantly awed by folks coming by to install lights, sort books, paint walls, give bookshelves, etc.
Point is, like during the Depression times, people want to help people who are doing the right thing. Then it was a little more clearer, because people tended to discuss the matters of the day in person and were more apt to lend a helping hand in the spirit of solidarity. Fucking he-man, rugged individualist, Libertarian fantasy bullshit/just one lottery ticket or financial Ponzi scheme from becoming a millionaire mentality, ruined it. But it remains at the core of all of us. We want to help each other; we've just been led astray by vacuous consumerism and the falsity of social media "friendships," among other related things.
Was just reading on libcom.org, which I can't recommend highly enough. It's like a library of radical history and everything we're engaged in discussing here. Wonderful treasure trove to get lost in of all our antecedents, and offers pdf's of books for free download also.
Your essay reminded me of the last article I was reading there, "Who Were The Luddites?"
Finally I'll just leave with an idea, which I really need to find the time to enact and already feel good given the response to it by some activist friends who were interested in participating. It is, to just sit in the park across the street when the weather gets nice, with a big sign that lists non-partisan common grievances of the 99% (e.g., Is your cost of living too high, are you paying too much for health insurance/know anybody who has been medically foreclosed upon, did you know that Wall St pays less tax than you, does your rent keep increasing while your salary hasn't, why does the CEO of Con Ed make $15mil a year while our utilities bills keep going up, etc). Brings some chairs, a couple of friends and some tea or coffee, and invite people to just talk - with the caveat that it is not a partisan political conversation, but a personal one. I think people are craving such interaction. And given how toxic social media has become would welcome and support it.
That to me is how the seeds to revolution are planted.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Amen.
I love your idea. And it's one that easily could be replicated in small parks around the country. Those willing to organize such conversations could post about them here at C99 (location, time, other important details); others could drop Typewriter Manifestos with those details appended around town.
As with Abacus, we found California Typewriter on iTunes for a 99-cent rental fee. I hope others watch it!
I touched on this
a few months ago here at c99% when I jokenly quipped "does anybody know where I can find a printing press"?
The comments got pretty real back then too. It was back when the assault on net neutrality was just a rumor. Now, it is reality.
I never considered the modern printer as pushback, but it too would ultimately be controled by limiting the ink cartridges or in tbe case of the press, ink itself. Just like ammo. No need to control guns, just limit the supply of ammo. They limit it with prices today, but during an upheaval it would dry up completely. Same with ink.
Still don't know what to do.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Cook it up
Making your own ink is as easy as refilling ink cartridges. Besides, it's toner you need anyway, as bulk printing will require a laser printer. None of this is a problem - not at all.
I like the concept; I question if it is implementable
First, how many working typewriters are left out there? For those, can you buy fresh ribbons? From what I can see, there are few if any new ones being made. I went on Boston Craislist, and there were 42 items. Some were books about typing, some were 1970s-1980s glass TTYs. I would guess that maybe 20 of them were real typewriters, and many of those were the finicky IBM selectrics. And that is for a major metropolitan area with a lot of techies.
OTOH, if vinyl records can make a comeback, maybe typewriters could too. Mechanical things are so old, so unusual to today's 20-somethings, that they have novelty value
Second, IIRC, the FBI and other police agencies used to figure out who spies and kidnappers and mad bombers were by matching the typewriter key's unique flaws. If people start using typewriters for anonymity, the police will just move all the typewriter tracking systems onto computers and generate a big database. Anonymity is going to be hard to purchase.
As for the article's suggestion of using a laser printer to print flyers, not only is that counter to the spirit of the "movement", but - duh - laserprinters print unique codes in light yellow on the page to identify what printer printed it. Sorta like the Soviet Union put counters on the xerox machines and watched them like a hawk.
I'm for anything that gets people away from the digital panopticon. I just don't see how this works, unless Russia starts cranking out typewriters as part of their plot to subvert "the free world TM".
Here's all that was generated on Reddit re: new typewriters.
dated 9 months ago - roughly May, 2017.
Does anyone still manufacture brand new mechanical typewriters?
Replies:
Well ...
Maybe we need to think of "the typewriter" as a metaphor for all non-digital communications.
If anyone is committed enough, there are vintage typewriters to be discovered ... as well as their required "consumables," such as tape. But you're right: ultimately, these things mostly still remain outside the means, or access, of ordinary people -- unless you live in California, or can afford to pay two-way shipping as well as repairs, or know how to fix typewriters yourself. And this scarcity creates vulnerability to TPTB.
So ... handwritten notes? Of course, handwriting experts could still single us out. But who the hell hand-writes anything anymore, and who's keeping a penmanship database?
All day long
You can buy typewriters - tuned up and ready to go - all day on eBay. Good ones. The best ones ever made. Cheap. Cheaper than a computer for sure. Supplies are still everywhere. Besides, you can re-ink typewriter ribbon.
A decent typewriter isn't some finicky Yugo or something. Don't get junk. A good American made typewriter from around 1940 to 1970 is built like a brick house. A Swiss Hermes 3000 will last forever and is under $200. They look cool, too.
The typewriter isn't the choke point - bulk printing is. First of all, older laser printers do not generate any tell-tale micro-printing. Second, who cares if they do? Use a printer that you bought used from a want ad or yard sale, etc. Easy-peasy! The classy thing would be to go to a Tea Party fund-raiser sale and buy one from them.
I've seen a few
in my travels about the western states where my SO and I frequent the second hand and antique shops. Depending on the price, maybe I'll start picking up some of them. I've seen some really cool all mechanical ones.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Move up a notch
While you may well find some cheap typewriters in shops, my advice would be to spend just a few dollars more and buy one from either an eBay seller (LOTS of those) or an non-eBay affiliated online seller. There are quite a few ex-repair folks (and current ones, too) that go through the machines and then turn them around. For a couple of hundred bucks you can have one of the best printing/composing machines ever made.
Only the cheap crap you don't want is trouble-prone and likely to break. Businesses used these things by the millions and I can assure you that they were not about to buy something that needed work every 25 pages. Far from it - these machines went for years on end, being pounded on eight hours a day, every day, for years on end.
A scanner is necessary for copying, or ...... Were it me (ahem...), I would get a used, very common brand laser printer with a built-in scanner. DO NOT buy a new one (see my post above).
The whole point of this is that it's not rocket science.
You have to have the mindset of a modern White Rose Society member. Remember, you must distribute the material. These days, there are cameras absolutely EVERYWHERE. They are at intersections, at gas stations, on half the porches in my neighborhood, on cars, on trucks, on traffic signals, throughout almost every retail establishment. A good number of the ones on the streets network straight to the local provost marshal's office ... if you know what I mean.
When distributing I suggest walking and having a Groucho Marx mask in your jacket.
This:
is better than this: