>Just a thought.
>
>I ain't no zippy.
No, although it sure does seem like it. Wired contributor Jules Marshall lives in Europe and heard about these people and met up with their leader . . . Marshall then wrote a big story on it that ended up on the cover of Wired.
I truly believe, though, that the Zippies would never have gotten any of the attention they have now if not for the Wired cover article and the flurry of informaiton and mis-information that followed.
I find the whole thing to be annoying: ravers have been on the net for over two years now, and online communities have been existing for as long as the net has. I really don't see what's so new or cool about these Zippy people -- the US net/rave/techno/computer/student/hacker community has been doing this so-called Zippy stuff for a while -- we just didn't get a Wired cover for it. There's a whole web of artists, DJs, musicians, party organizers, computer professionals, pagan spiritualists, students, writers, and what have you who are all joined together and communicate daily. We've built muds, moos, and chat sites. We have mailing lists, archives, and web sites. The community includes members from Japan, Europe, Australia, Brazil, and North America. So as far čas "embracing technology" we've got that down, too. And the rhetoric isn't much different at all from the standard idealistic rave-community rhetoric.
So what's the big deal here?
Laura
Newsgroups: alt.culture.zippies
From: arandia@panix.com (Joel Arandia)
Subject: Re: Are zippies an invention of WIRED?
Date: 7 Jul 1994 19:08:29 -0400
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC
Lines: 30
In <2versg$i5l@agate.berkeley.edu> la ura@soda.berkeley.edu (Laura La Gassa) writes:
>I find the whole thing to be annoying: ravers have been on the
>net for over two years now, and online communities have been existing
>for as long as the net has. I really don't see what's so new or cool about
>these Zippy people -- the US net/rave/techno/computer/student/hacker
>community has been doing this so-called Zippy stuff for a while -- we just
>didn't get a Wired cover for it. There's a whole web of artists, DJs,
>musicians, party organizers, computer professionals, pagan spiritualists,
>students, writers, and what have you who are all joined together and
>communicate daily. We've built muds, moos, and chat sites. We have
>mailing lists, archives, and web sites. The community includes members
>from Japan, Europe, Australia, Brazil, and North America. So as far as
>"embracing technology" we've got that down, too. And the rhetoric isn't much
>different at all from the standard idealistic rave-community rhetoric.
>So w hat's the big deal here?
Big misunderstanding here. The Zippies know that there is a huge rave network out there. That is what they depend on. They want get a message out there. The ravers are young. The ravers are well connected. What better way is there to propogate a meme but through existing channels?
What rave has is a large group of well connected young people. What would happen if all these people, these ravers, stood up and shouted against American governmental bullshit? Ravers could potentially be the most effective and organized social force in the world. Potentially.
joel
Newsgroups: alt.culture.zippies
From: ggoff@rain.org (Greg Goff)
Subject: Re: Are zippies an invention of WIRED?
Date: 7 Jul 1994 19:47:56 -0700
Organization: Regional Access Information Network (RAIN)
Lines: 58
Joel Arandia (arandia@panix.com) had this to say:
> In <2versg$i5l@agate.berkeley.edu> laura@soda.berkeley.edu (Laura La Gassa) writes:
> >I find the whole thing to be annoying: ravers have been on the
> >net for over two years now, and online communities have been existing
> >for as long as the net has. I really don't see what's so new or cool about
> >these Zippy people -- the US net/rave/techno/computer/student/hacker
> >community has been doing this so-called Zippy stuff for a while -- we just
> >didn't get a Wired cover for it. There's a čwhole web of artists, DJs,
> >musicians, party organizers, computer professionals, pagan spiritualists,
> >students, writers, and what have you who are all joined together and
> >communicate daily. We've built muds, moos, and chat sites. We have
> >mailing lists, archives, and web sites. The community includes members
> >from Japan, Europe, Australia, Brazil, and North America. So as far as
> >"embracing technology" we've got that down, too. And the rhetoric isn't much
> >different at all from the standard idealistic rave-community rhetoric.
> >So what's the big deal here?
> Big misunderstanding here. The Zippies know that there is a
> huge rave network out there. That is what they depend on. They want
> get a message out there. The ravers are young. The ravers are well
> connected. What better way is there to propogate a meme but through
> existing channels?
> What rave has is a large group of well connected young people.
> What would happen if all these people, these ravers, stood up and
> shouted against American governmental bullshit? Ravers could
> potentially be the most effective and organized social force in
> the world. Potentially.
> joel
Bonus point: the zippies have the potential to bring in a whole bunch of people from OUTSIDE the rave culture, as well. I'm not a raver. I'm not really a hippy (extrordinary hair-length not-withstanding), either. I may not even be a zippie (Cf. thread: 'are we REALLY zippies?'). But when I picked up the Wired article and read: revolution involving synthesis of eco/human values and appropriate technology about to sweep the planet, they got me. I think that the zippies have the potential to link together bunches of far-flung isolated networks (communities) into a single *inter*network of people with common sentiments.
I don't want to compete with the ravers. Nor do I want to see the rave movement subsumed into the zippie (or some other) movement. I think that we can all retain our resp čective sub-cultural identities, and still form a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts.
If the zippies have some other agenda, then, IMO, the people who read this group are probably not zippies. I know that I couldn't align my energies with such a movement.
Respectfully,
Greg
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