riendly/agitate is a weblog published in the United States, state of New York, city of New York, borough of Brooklyn, neighborhood of Greenpoint, by yours truly, Jason Laning.

In addition to occasional ruminations on politically significant events, my primary purpose here is to investigate the ways in which cultural production can serve political ends. I’m looking for creative forms that encourage inclusivity and engagement, instead of exclusivity and detachment. I hope to encompass a broad survey of cultural production that includes not only political films, bands, tactical media, street theater, graffiti and protest art, but other forms of creative activity that are not usually thought of as art.

My contact page is here.

As an introduction to my socio-political leanings, I’ve pasted the following from the first post:

My political philosophy goes something like this: as a white, male, middle-class American, I should not (and do not) have much to complain about when it comes to matters of security and material comfort. Although my current employment situation is less than dull and more than a little demeaning, and my financial worth is tens of thousands of dollars in the red (due primarily to the cost of a few years of post-secondary education), I find myself in no danger of imminent death or even mild discomfort due to any impending threat of inadequate food or housing. As a white male, middle-class American, I need merely follow a few simple rules (such as: go to work, pay taxes and obey the police) and most of my basic needs, as determined by my government, are more-or-less assured.

So, although I would personally enjoy a life free from the constraints of government-imposed taxes and the threat of imprisonment, my purpose here is not to complain about my own state of political oppression. After all, even though the median American family probably enjoys a more comfortable lifestyle than my own, the majority of the rest of humanity does not. This, then, is where my primary political concern lies—at what cost to others is my general condition of relative security and comfort provided? And further, what are the consequences for a political society whose focus on security and material wealth borders on obsessive paranoia?

Of course, the effects of this nation’s collective capitalist fixation on financial power and security are everywhere plain to see. The advancement of the corporate agenda to seek wider profit margins by cutting labor costs has led to an ever-globalizing economy of ‘free trade,’ leaving a trail of sweatshop laborers and deteriorating environmental conditions in its wake. Furthermore, in order to guarantee the protection of these financial interests, the U.S. continues to transform itself into something of an international militaristic bully, assuring, through the threat of physical violence, that the rest of the world plays by its rules.

The result is a growing division between the have’s and the have-not’s, both at home and abroad, as our national culture of competition alienates humanity into us versus them, good versus evil, and winners versus losers. Meanwhile, the American public continues to surrender hard-won civil liberties in the vain anticipation of greater national security, creating an environment of hysterical madness whereby political dissent is censored and equated with treason to be silenced by threat of imprisonment and even torture.

And yet I am hopeful that a more peaceful world is possible through a non-hierarchical system of human community that privileges the equality of basic human necessity over the current private-property obsessed, class-based atmosphere of upward mobility.

I’m for a revolution that doesn’t seek to replace one form of controlling power with another, that privileges dissent and critical thinking over blind obedience, education over indoctrination, and compassion over competition. I’m for a revolution that realizes the historical lesson that violence always turns back on itself, and that an undeniable bond exists between political means and ends. I truly believe that non-violent activism, radical education and compassion are the vital tools capable of affecting the change towards a more peaceful, equal and free human society.