Frontline Internet

I've always thought that the internet had much more to it than most people seem to rate. The communication you get on the various Bulletin Boards and Forums I frequent are one thing, but most Scottish Republicans, Nationalists or Socialists tend to regard the internet as either a free news tool or an electonic pamphlet.

Last week I was browsing the TOTSE Bulletin board, and came across a post about something called 'Neurocam.' The link to the website concerned was dead, so I trawled through the internet, intruiged about "dead drops" "clandestine activity" and other weird stuff. It was all rather 'Fight Club' and mysterious, and since my leg is dead I figured I check it out.

Briefly, Neurocam seemed to appear about one to two years ago on a billboard in Melbourne, where passers by were invited to "get out of your mind." Ordinary people signed up, seemed to be recruited as agents for the mysterious Neurocam firm going to dead drops, and otherwise acting as if they were in MI5. Whether or not it's part of a sub-genre of Role Playing on the Internet called "Alternative Reality Gaming" or whether it's an art project by some guy called Robert Hely remains to be seen. I'm not going to waste time figuring that one out. That's not my point.

My point is that it shows the internet for being much bigger a tool in social engineering than has otherwise been considered. Imagine I decided to do the same, and tried to take people "down the rabbit hole" in a similar way in order that I can push forward my own Republican Agenda in Scotland. I'd have a lot to gain, because I'd reach a section of the public who probably aren't that interested in politics or freedom.

Corporations have used this genre, ARG, to forward their own concerns. The BBC are doing it with Jamie Kane, a fictional ARG which is basically just a promotional tool. Other companies have used it to promote trading cards, blah blah blah.

It plays on a common subject in literature 'the willing suspension of disbelief'. The point of it all is that it COULD be real. And we have enough of that in Scotland for me to use it as a tool for pushing my beliefs in a way that hasn't been done before. Why merely hand out leaflets? Why cold call people in their homes who don't want to be contacted? The internet has shown itself to be a much more powerful tool than most politicos have otherwise considered.