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Replies: 9 Comments

on Sunday, April 9th, Rob said

I'd like to expand upon the sequence of events that was the shamanic trance/meditation at Dundrum last April fools Day. Though there were but a dozen of us, the meditation went fantastically (People who came were mostly the from TheUltimateComment.com and Dublin Jammers Network, linked to AdBusters.org - it seemed to all happen over the internet).

Within 30 seconds of us sitting down, a crowd of 100, mostly kids surrounded us.
We had 2 people handing out flyers and one recording it all. To make it more of
a spectacle, the crowd sealed the entrance, nobody could get in or out and the
security didn't have a clue what to do! We weren't doing anything illegal so
they said insurance was the reason they could move us... fun is always ruled
out when insurance is involved! They eventually dragged our limp bodies out one
at a time after 20 minutes of very fun meditation. That congratulatory note with tips for our next trip from one of the security! Savage! They all seemed to hate the Shopping Centre and what they are paid to do and remain sound guys. Keep up bringing it down from the inside!

I've also got more emails back from America hinting that it may spread to other
activist groups as a form of direct action/peaceful civil disobedience.

Ps.
Here is a section from an interview with sociologist Prof. George Ritzer, author
of the McDonaldisation of Society (now back instock in easons, v. interesting).
It also provides a backdrop to the reasons in my head for targeting the largest palace of mindless consumption in Europe.

"You have described the McDonaldised society as a system of "iron cages" in which
all institutions come to be dominated by the same principle. So what sort of
world would you like us to be living in ?

Well, obviously (laughter)...a far less caged one. I mean the fundamental
problem with McDonaldised systems is that it's other people in the system
structuring our lives for us, rather than us structuring our lives for
ourselves. I mean, that's really what McDonald's is all about. You don't want a
creative person clerk at the counter - that's why they are scripted. You don't
want a creative hamburger cook - you want somebody who simply follows routines
or follows scripts. So you take all creativity out of all activities and turn
them into a series of routinised kinds of procedures that are imposed by some
external force. So that's the reason why it is dehumanising.

Humanity is essentially creative and if you develop these systems that are
constraining and controlling people they can't be creative, they can't be
human. The idea is to turn humans into human robots. The next logical step is
to replace human robots with mechanical robots. And I think we will see
McDonaldised systems where it is economically feasible and technologically
possible to replace human robots with non-human robots.

When asked about what he thought of the McLibal Trial, Ritzer responds:

I think that clearly, from very small beginnings, they've created a worldwide
movement here, worldwide attention, and have laid the basis for a real
potential threat to McDonald's and the process of McDonaldisation. We talked
about this earlier, the possibility of bringing together these disparate groups
and I think that McDonald's has got to devote, I mean if they want to prevent
this from occurring, they've got to devote some attention to how to diffuse and
strategically keep apart these oppositional forces that seem likely to come
together, to focus on it as a negative force. I mean if there really comes to
be a time where McDonald's is viewed as this evil force in the world by a
significant number of people, then that becomes a real threat to the
organisation. But again I want to point out that even if McDonald's disappeared
tomorrow, even if they closed their doors because of the McLibel trial the
process would continue apace."

on Wednesday, April 5th, john said

Yeah, went quite well. I think we should leave any of the party stuff untill we get more numbers. Overall a very good day.

on Monday, April 3rd, Jimmy said

I have a load of different ideas that we could try. One would be meditate in one place, draw all the guards there and then get another group to start meditating elsewhere. If we had 3/4 groups we could cause a lot of peaceful mischeif.

Also, what about staging a massive party somewhere(no idea what the "party" would involve, maybe in a park with music, entertainment, free food and whatnot or a massive house party, or multiple simultanious house parties!) and station people outside dundrum and other places directing them away from dundrum and their day of hanging around a soulless shopping centre and to the party!

on Sunday, April 2nd, Roger said

hey, I work as a security guard in Dundrum Town Centre. I wasn't one of the ones who dragged you out. But I watched the footage later(and no, i can't get a copy,although not for lack of trying).Those kids really didn't make things any better.apparently, when the lads were moving everyone,one of the kids asked"can we not stay and slag the hippies".It was quite funny on the radio,when one of the guards originally said"eh,....there's a load of lads on the ground and they won't get up".Anyway,the reason i googled you guys and tracked you down was to give you a pat on the back. Quite a cool thing to do....it's a pity you didn't have more people.here's a tip:if you want to do one again,do it when it's REALLY busy,like 3.p.m. sunday,and do it somewhere far away from an exit door, (like outside virgin,or maybe champion sports)that way more people would walk by, and you'd get noticed more.God Speed.

on Sunday, April 2nd, Out of Hugh-puns said

God I hated those kids. But I suppose I sorta brought it upon myself. Doesn't lessen my hate any though...

on Sunday, April 2nd, Jimmy said

nah, sorry, I didn't ahve the camera, that was the guy with the dreads and his friends. They went around interviewing people about consumerism in the shopping centre, I'd like to see the footage also.

on Sunday, April 2nd, Conor said

I'm very pleased with how that went. It wasn't too impressive in terms of numbers - maybe a dozen or so participants - but the unfolding of events was perfect.
Things got underway a little late - about 3:20. The pranksters sat down in a circle in the entrance rotunda and started meditating. A group of about 20-30 (maybe more? I had my eyes closed) schoolkids and others gathered around out of curiosity and were cracking jokes and generally makin' a scene. Interestingly, when the security guards came, they kicked out the spectators before the pranksters. The guards tried talking to us about insurance and safety regulations, but we remained entranced and unresponsive until, after a while, they dragged us out the door one by one.
The spectacle attracted a lot of attention from randomers, and most of them who I talked to respected what we were doing.

Overall, I'm very encouiraged by the way this went: some new interest in The Ultimate Comment ('n' stuff), great public attention, exactly the right amount of trouble with The Man. We'll hopefully be able to get more people for the next freakout (whatever that may be) through the contacts made here.

Jimmy, do you have that video footage? You should post it an youtube.com or putfile.com

on Saturday, April 1st, Jimmy said

Yeah I was the guy with the GNR hoody. Sorry I didn't stay sitting long enough to get dragged out. Pity there wasn't more people, but meh, twas fun. Add me to msn: jc2k3_6@hotmail.com

on Wednesday, March 29th, Multidimensional Hughperdrive said

Woooo this sounds funteresting

t h e u l t i m a t e c o m m e n t d o t c o m


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03/25/2006: "Shamanic trance planned in Dundrum town centre"