The Fight Club

Do you know what Shaziman Mansor called us today? According to The Star paper today and complimented with this interesting article by Jeff Ooi himself, Shaziman is calling us - the bloggers as the snipers. Snipers at shooting at the powerful people from far and hiding in the shadows! Hey, the local daily isn't the only daily that documents the 'sniper' calling. It's mentioned in articles from international dailies including Jerusalem, Paris, Canada and Sydney! This newspaper extract was taken from Berita Harian.

Seriously, I need to discuss this because this case is getting out of control and I feel that our right as responsible bloggers are in jeopardy from the remarks of certain people who are not IT-savvy. Shaziman was proposing of having every blogger registering. But he has forgotten something: there is no free blog. Whoever wants to have a blog will have to register to Blogger - the current blog software that I'm writing on or even fill up a form to apply for a web server either locally or elsewhere! Where is the logic? Is he trying to spread the pre-paid doctrine used in the mobile phone episode over here?

The current episode of Shaziman proposing the idea of registration clearly mimics Marvel comics big event of 2006: Civil War. Civil War is Mark Millar's mockery of the 2002 Patriot Act. In the story line, superheroes are required to be registered under the Superhero Registration Act as to control the uncertainty pertaining to superheroes that might go out of control. The main proponents of the program would be Iron Man, Miss Marvel, Mr. Fantastic and certain people. America's icon Captain America refused to register saying that it will take away the free rights that everyone has. Eventually, there was a battle by the proponents and those who refused it.

Seeing that the fight causes more damage, Captain America eventually surrendered but before he could go on, he was assassinated by an unknown gunman. See what happens? Captain represents the perfect utopia - the American Dream, the ideal world. With his death, it spells the end of the dream and plunging into the current chaos that parallels our world. It is like everyone of us being torn of choosing good or evil and in the end we become a clockwork orange.

I look at some of the pictures which featured the establishment of the NAB - National Alliance of Bloggers led by Jeff and Ahiruddin. Great bravery there - out to protect the interests of bloggers like us. I wonder what if the mandatory registration is enforced, will those people even read cooking recipes that are shared by female bloggers? Will my mum's posts be scrutinized by them?

Update: My connection crashed just now, but now I got all my previous written paragraphs back! So that's one of Blogger's safety net. Hmm....

Seeing that clearly the main interest of BAM is to protect the interest of bloggers reminds me of the establishment of our very own Fight Club. Author Chuck Palahniuk was inspired to write the novel after he was beaten by some people of the neighborhood when he screamed at them as to request them to lower the volume as he wanted to sleep. He vented everything in the novel.

Here's something funny in related to the case above. In the DVD, there was a 1-second only blink-and-you-miss disclaimer from Tyler Durden. Part of the disclaimer reads:

"Are you so impressed with authority that you give them respect and credence to all who claim it? Do you read everything you are supposed to read? Do you think everything you're supposed to think? Buy what you're told you should want? Get out of your apartment....Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you're alive. If you don't claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned...Tyler."

The last few lines in the disclaimer clearly mirrors what we bloggers are facing right now. We are at the point where the best defense is the offense. Jeff's post on Mahatma Gandhi's method might help to sway public opinion on this matter: Satyagaha

via mass disobedience. Ever wonder why students nowadays start to disobey certain school rules? They find it is absurd. They act by mass disobedience. Start booing teachers, start mocking teachers. In my brother's class, some of his students drew a chalk outline on the floor representing the dead body of one of their teachers that they hate.