Activism! Direct Action, Hacktivism and the Future of Society by Tim Jordan (9781861891228)

Presenting an account of a new, collective type of activism, this text examines all types of activism - from animal liberationists to neo-facist agitators - and proposes that this new activism will create the ethical values of our future society.

This text refutes the common claim that Western culture has never been more politically apathetic, and demonstrates that the rise and persistence of acts of civil disobedience have in fact come to dominate our political landscape. The text shows how in our modern, dynamic, high-tech and fragmented society traditional, single-issue political battles such as class struggle or black liberation have been replaced by popular, collective practices of a new political activism. From Europe to the United States, and from Australia to South America, the text charts the activities, on both sides of the political spectrum, of the citizens who make up this DIY culture: eco-activists, animal liberators, neo-fascists, ravers, anti-abortionists, squatters, hunt saboteurs and internet activists (hacktivists). This text outlines the activities, enthusiasms and passions of these communities and proposes that these new social movements will actually be responsible for creating the ethical values by which we will all measure our lives in the 21st century. This is Utopianism at both its most fanatical and its most pragmatic - after all, the future of our world is at stake, or so the author says.