Gene Ray, Tactical Media and The End of The End of History

Tactical media practitioners favour art that is created at the grassroots level, on the essence of community ownership, and they greatly frown upon permanent standing institutional practices of art. Anything that is owned privately is an act of taking what is not theirs, the usurpation of wealth.

In the modern age of democracy, people are becoming more aware of their political and social structures. In the past decades, activists first stemmed against corporate capitalism in a way to aggressively demote power from those who had it to the ones who didn't. Guy Debord and the Situationist International Society and the Spectacle, attempted this concept. Gene Ray, in his article mentions that as time passes, the strategies in which tactical media practitioners change as well. This type of introspective analysis is critical if the practice is to become more ambitious in targeting capitalism in a broader scale. In an extremely democratic society, the approach in producing media resistance is to be sensitive to social issues, but at the same time be even more effective in targeting the capitalistic institutions. What's discouraging is that although the popularity of tactical media resistance has increased, its effectiveness has decreased (in some cases, in the context of aggression), that the perspective holds true of preserving an alternate way of voicing opinionated attacks against conglomerates and political powers.

Realistically, resistance to capitalism will always be viewed as a means of balancing an equation, if democracy + capitalism are to exist, corporate greed and wealth are to be countered. But inherently, are we not selfish in nature is a question that looms over my mind. It is impossible to totally eradicate the corporate foe, or the political tyrant, but in essence, the very hint of giving a non-violent protest is the precious glint of hope, a way to collectively work towards a better society. What Ray is trying to say is that tactical resistance today isn't what it used to be. Who really cares? Where are the protests and where are the rallies? There are activists on many different levels, from individual "jammers" who practice on a grassroots level, to larger organizations like AdBuster, N5M, Yes Men Institute for Applied Autonomy described by Ray as becoming classified as one genre of activism. Each entity target different aspects of capitalism, and at each level, their message is as big as their clandestine corporate enemies. The need for resistance against the hegemonic powers of capitalism is an ever changing type of affair, and it is beginning to be more apparent that the two forces are in symbiotic relationship with each other. It will be interesting to see what "they" can come up with next. They being the practitioners of tactical media, their response to ever-changing society of global conglomerates, and the effectiveness in which these protests are carried out. They need to be inventive and intelligent in a manner that doesn't condemn their own image, but in a way that is diligent, respectful and informative.