weston on Sun, 18 Oct 1998 13:55:36 +0200 (MET DST) |
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<nettime> wearing a paper bag |
> The following is from > "An Open Letter from the President of the Friends United in > Creative Knowledge of the Faceless Attitudes of Corporate > Entities." > > > ********************************************* > > "As we all know, in February of this year, a man walked into a Barnes > and Noble Superstore in Austin, Texas, wearing a paper bag with holes cut > for his eyes. He approached the front counter and politely asked the > clerk for assistance in finding a particular book. The clerk immediately > called for a manager to the front. An assistant manager appeared and asked > the man why he was wearing a paper bag on his head. In the now infamous > reply, the man said: 'I am tired of the corporate attitude which a > views me merely as a faceless consumer. And I am wearing this paper bag as > symbol of my protest against this sort of mind-set.' The assistant > manager then told him to either remove the bag or leave the store. Not > willing to give in any further to the disease, the man elected to leave the > store. > > This event was subsequently reported over the FringeWare News Network > and Midnight SPecial Bookstore's Disgusted with Superstores Opinion List. > And here in Dunwitch, a group of us decided that we had also had enough of > similar corporate attitudes. It was high time to take action. > Following the non-violent example of the man in Austin, we began to wear > paper bags into various Superstores around the area. We met with > remarkably consistent results: all of us were asked to either remove > our bags or leave the store. This was to be expected. But it only further > stimulated our outrage. > > Thus we have decided to hold a nationwide mass protest action at 12:00 > noon on the 23d of November of this year. What we have planned is for > thousands of paper bag wearing individuals to peacefully enter into > either Barnes and Noble or Borders Bookstores and browse for approximately > 15 minutes. Already, the response to this has been overwhelming. > Groups of individuals are being organized all over the world to join us in > the November 23d protest. > > If you are likewise fed up with being treated as a faceless consumer > by various corporations, please join us with your paper bag on the 23rd > of November. ... ANd if you are interested in further action, contact us > at: > Friends United in Creative Knowledge of the Faceless Attitudes of > Corporate Entities > c/o Fringe Ware Bookstore > 2716 Guadalupe > Austin, TX 78705 ........................................................................ n e t S I G N communications weston triemstra 110 west hastings weston@netsign.com vancouver, bc v6b 1g8 "the future was now" canada ........................................................................ --- # distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@desk.nl and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/ contact: nettime-owner@desk.nl