Re: <nettime> Portland Occupation's tactical innovation

[John Hopkins <jhopkins@neoscenes.net>]

It's worth keeping in mind that in the next months and years (already!), police 
ranks are being filled with well-equipped, well-trained, and battle-hardened 
Iraq/Afghanistan vets.  They have been tested under extreme conditions far 
beyond a milling crowd of disorganized quasi-squatters -- imagining that 
'tactical' field deployments of Occupiers can work in effective (neutralizing) 
opposition to the police is dangerously naive.  I recommend a closer read of Sun 
Tzu and Machiavelli as well as military field manuals available online, etc.  Do 
not underestimate your opponents. The characterization of tactics in this 
article are, again, extremely naive (pretending to draw on 'historical' 
precedent) and represent a high-risk for poorly-informed protesters. Police rank 
and command are quite aware of the simple permutations suggested in this posting ...

>     The tactical evolution that evolved relies on two military tactics that
>     are thousands of years old- the tactical superiority of light infantry
>     over heavy infantry, and the tactical superiority of the retreat over
>     the advance.

IMHO long term strategic considerations have to include methods which 
change/evolve/alter the structural relations in the social system overall 
(addressing the perceived imbalance of wealth, etc) -- these issues will not be 
contested as tactical play on the streets which is largely a media circus (count 
the cameras versus 'occupiers'!).  They are generally contested only when large 
numbers of people change their patterns of (resource) consumption as it is this 
consumption which enrich the 1%.  Occupy, per se, will not accomplish this.

jh


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
John Hopkins
Watching the Dhao rather than the Dow!
http://neoscenes.net/
http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/
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