Anti-New Year protest
French demonstrators saw in the New Year - by protesting against it.
People carrying banners reading ‘No to 2007′ and ‘Now is better’ marched through the streets of Nantes.
They called on the United Nations to stop the ‘mad race’ of time and declare the indefinite suspension of the future.
The protest was an attempt to make fun of French people’s apparent fondness of saying no to any kind of change and as a different way to celebrate the New Year.
When the bells sounded to mark the start of 2007, they moved on to the next stage of their campaign - chanting ‘No to 2008′
Sure they have to frame it as “an attempt to make fun of” something, but what if there’s something to all this - that if we all just begin protesting time and collectively stop or even reverse it, that we actually could? [via]
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6 Comments
Magnifique. I read about this too — only the French could come up with something as wacky, irreverant and formidablement fou as this. It is, after all, the land of Henri Bergson. There is a whiff of Dada, of performance art and of le bergsonisme in all this. Eternal recurrence, anyone?
time is a construct of semantics and driven by the relentless pressure of media to conform. mess with the methods of construction of time and time changes.
you own mind creates time.
try this; stare at the sweep second hand of a quartz analog watch for a minute or so and then look away from the watch and think of as little as possible for about half aminute or so………..then look at the second hand again.
For that I would of course need a watch which I haven’t had in years
Try it with a flash watch.
I want to try to duplicate some of Kozyrev’s experiments someday when I’m feeling ambitious.
(or Paul Laffoley’s time machine! :D)
I can’t remember where, but I read somewhere that Australian aborigines have no past tense or future tense in their language, just present tense. And in general most tribal cultures have more specific words for things, animals, weather, etc but very little abstract or concept words.
Is Zerzan a French name?
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[...] I just wanted to say hello, wish everyone a happy new year, assuming you’re pro-2007 (not everyone is), and basically make myself post something to break through this disconcerting sense of uncertainty about what this blog even ‘is’ and where it should fit in amongst a number of projects now competing more fiercely for my time and attention. My priorities are shifting and expanding, in positive directions, ultimately, but it feels uncomfortable for the moment. But don’t worry about me (as I know you are doing)… it’s nothing I haven’t been anticipating for some time, nor anything I won’t handle with my usual awesome wisdom and grace. Anyway, it’s been nice to disappear for awhile, but I have to admit it’s good to be back. [...]