World Smash a Computer Day of Action -by A.F.R.O.D.I.S.I.A.C ------------------------------------ 24 Feb 24 Feb 24 Feb (Taken from: The Future Now, issue 9, June 1994 - published in Brisbane, Australia) Almost everything we touch, eat and do nowadays is affected in some way by computers. It gets harder and harder to resist the techno-onslaught in our lives. Time to turn off the terminal, crush computers and stop dating your data. It's not that computers stress people out in their jobs. It's not that our technologies rule our society, and is only getting worse as years pass. It's not that we have elevated computers from the ranks of absurdity, to novelty, to necessity. It's not that there is never any public debate over whether we want our society to be completely transformed by the latest technology. It's not because of the bulldozers levelling our homes to make way for the coming information super-highway. It's not because the manufacture of chips, printed circuit boards, magnetic media, and other high-tech products uses some of the most dangerous materials known to humanity. It's not that the magnetic fields found within a radius of about two feet from the terminal is causing operators to die from cancer. It's not that computers distort reality. It's not that computers are dangerously impersonal. It's not that computers are actually antithetical to information sources that traditional societies use: personal observation, sensory interaction, historical and geographic contexts, and teachings about the human-wildlife relationship that have been passed down from previous generations. It's not even that computer errors can be catastrophic. It's all of this. It's that this is sold to us as a leisure, even Paradise. It's that we sell our lives every day to build this network which is aimed like a pistol at our hearts. That we daily build our own prison, our oh-so-modern hell. EVERY FACTORY A PRISON! EVERY OIL TANKER A SPILL! EVERY T.V. 10,000 VALIUM! EVERY OFFICE A MORGUE! AND EVERY COMPUTER A TIME-BOMB AT YOUR FINGERTIPS. FUCK CAPITALIST ORGANIZATION FUCK COMPUTERS FUCK DEATH