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CYBERTRIBE:
- Wolfgang Sterneck / The Cybertribe
- Wolfgang Sterneck / Cybertribe-Visionen
- Universal Movement Trinity / Cybertribe Rising
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Wolfgang Sterneck:
THE CYBERTRIBE
The Cybertribe is a distant utopia and a living practice at the same time. Its a fantasy but also concrete reality. It can be felt as a pulsating rhythm, can be lived as a changing energy, which connects countless small, often loose, communities, groups and projects. As a modern tribe the Cybertribe knows no limits. Its home is the whole earth, its everywhere and nowhere. Everyone who opens his or her eyes will see the signs, will understand the languages.
The Cybertribe connects the wisdom of ancient cultures wth the understanding of todays developments. It combinates the expieriences and perceptions of witches and shamanes, of resistence fighters and revoltutionaries, of hippies and communards, of hackers and cybernauts to use them for the the present and to envolve them for the future. In doing so individual and social change, inner and outer development will become a new unity.
The Cybertribe arises where manipulation is oppoesed by a new consciousness and reduction by new dimensions. It arises where the principle of competition is confronted with the principle of soldiarity, the process of destruction with the process of healing the politics of repression with the politics of resistance. Sometimes it develops absolutly unexpectelly, to disappear in the same manner. In some places it grows continuous step by step, in others it has existed for ages.
The Cybertribe doesnt have a membership in the normal sense. Its not possible and not necessary to join it in a formal way. Sometimes its not even necessary to know the term or the ideas behind it at all. The belonging comes of itself, manifestated in the energies and acts of the person.
The Cybertribe is in all its appearances a rebellious scream against the omnipresent destruction. Its a trial, a starting point to end and overcome this process for building a new culture on the ruins of the old system.
Its possible to reach the stars, but only if we really try.
Wolfgang Sterneck
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Wolfgang Sterneck:
CYBERTRIBE - VISIONEN
Der Cybertribe ist ferne Utopie und gelebte Praxis zugleich. Er
ist ein Fantasiegebilde und dennoch ist er konkrete Realität.
Spürbar als pulsierender Rhythmus, erlebbar als verändernde
Kraft, die unzählige kleine, oftmals lose Gemeinschaften, Gruppen
und Projekte verbindet.
Der Cybertribe kennt als moderner Stamm keine Grenzen. Seine Heimat
ist der gesamte Erdball. Er ist überall und nirgendwo zu Hause.
An manchen Orten entsteht er völlig unerwartet, um genauso
schnell wieder zu verschwinden. An Anderen wächst er kontinuierlich
Schritt für Schritt und an einigen Orten besteht er schon seit
einer kleinen Ewigkeit. Wer die Augen öffnet wird die Spuren
finden, wird die Zeichen erkennen, wird die Sprachen verstehen.
Der Cybertribe verbindet das Wissen alter Kulturen mit dem Verständnis
der Entwicklungen der Gegenwart. Er verknüpft die Erfahrungen
und Erkenntnisse von Hexen und Schamanen, von Widerstandskämpferinnen
und Revolutionären, von Hippies und Kommunardinnen, von Hackern
und Cybernautinnen, um sie in der Gegenwart zu nutzen und für
die Zukunft weiterzuentwickeln. Persönliche und gesellschaftliche
Veränderung, innere und äußere Entwicklung werden
dabei zu einer neuen Einheit.
Der Cybertribe entsteht überall dort, wo der Manipulation
ein neues Bewußtsein und der Eingeschränktheit neue Dimensionen
gegenübergestellt werden. Überall dort, wo dem Prinzip
der Konkurrenz das Prinzip der Solidarität, dem Prozeß
der Zerstörung ein Prozeß der Heilung und der Politik
der Unterdrückung eine Politik des Widerstandes entgegengesetzt
wird.
Der Cybertribe kennt keine Zugehörigkeit im herkömmlichen
Sinne. Es ist vielfach nicht möglich und auch gar nicht notwendig
ihm in irgendeiner Weise formal beizutreten. Es bedarf nicht einmal
der Kenntnis des Begriffs oder der damit verbundenen Ideen, um dem
Cybertribe anzugehören. Die Zugehörigkeit ergibt sich
von alleine, manifestiert in den Energien und Handlungen der entsprechenden
Person.
Der Cybertribe in all seinen Ausprägungen ist ein ein Aufschrei
und ein Aufbäumen gegen die allgegenwärtige Zerstörung.
Er ist ein Versuch, ein Ansatz diesen Prozeß aufzuhalten und
zu überwinden, um auf den Trümmern des alten Systems eine
neue Kultur aufzubauen.
Die Sterne sind erreichbar, aber nur wenn wir es wirklich wollen.
Wolfgang Sterneck
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Universal Movement Trinity:
CYBERTRIBE RISING
- Beltane Communique -
Consider the present situation. The Industrialized World wakes
up to flnd itself in a quandary. Perhaps the
technological confrontation between the two ideologies of Communism
and Capitalism, known as "Cold
War", was merely a device for global control that was expedient
and advantageous for the regimes which
held the rest of the world at nuclear ransom. We are told that the "good guys" have won, and that the world
is now safe from the threat of the "evll empire". We flnd
ourselves left with only one Superpower, which has
taken upon itself the job of enforcer for a "New World Order".
But what is the nature of the victory that this
New World Order has brought us? The ozone layer is still depleted,
and continues to become thinner and
thinner. People are still starving in the world, while food is rotting
in warehouses. A deadly disease is
ravaging the continent of Africa and threatens the very fabric of
the industrial populations, and the Last
Superpower, our Superpower, refuses to spend even a fraction of
the amount it spends on nuclear
weaponry, on finding a cure.
We Ravers, as a new breed of individuals, have a unique chance
to make a difference in the world we live
in. Most of you, for better or worse, who are reading this, reside
in the United States or some other
industrialized nation. You probably came across this at a rave or
house party. Some of you have had
profound experiences of togetherness and and a sense of community
while attending events such as this.
What we need to do as a group is to expand this feeling out into
our lives and into the global community. As a
group, we are incredibly diverse. We are multi-racial, multi-ethnic
and multi-talented. We are artists and
engineers, dancers and bankers, doctors and lawyers, scientists
and mystics. In many respects, we are the
"result" of the goals of the 60's. We have learned to
interrelate, communicate, and party with each other
across lines of race, gender, class and sexual preference. We all
have come together under one "House" to
share a few moments in Eternity before we go back to our jobs in
the "real world" Consider what the "real
world" would be like if part of our jobs were to spread that
sense of Unity and Togetherness that we
experience within the Rave "Family", to others that we
come in contact with. We who live in the
industrialized nations have access to incredible technologies, these
technologies, like all forms of power, can
be used to harm or to heal. The choice is left up to you and me
to decide, right now, how our current and
emerging energies, wealth and technologies will be used.
Over the last 40 years, the Dominator culture has developed a paradigm,
often referred to in military circles
as C3I, or Command, Control Communication and Intelligence. The
doctrine of C3I has grown up from the
early work of Norbert Wiener who coined the term cybernetics [from
the greek kyberne-te-s; to pilot or
steerl to refer to the "comparative study of the automatic
control system formed by the nervous system and
brain and by mechanical-electrical communication systems".
Early cybernetics research was used in WW II
to develop swivel and turret systems for anti-aircraft gun platforms.
It laid the foundation for the advent of
the digital computer. Subsequently, C3I was developed as a way to
manage and control everything from the
outcome of battles to the deployment of disaster forces, to the
missions of the space shuttle.
We have a chance to transform and mutate this technology of control
and domination, into a technology of
sharing and cooperation. What is needed is a new paradigm based
upon the cybernetic model, but with the
additional ideas from Deep Ecology, Distributed Systems' Theory
and the "New Physics". For lack of a
better term, I refer to this as C5I2 Community, Consensus, Cooperation,
Communication, Cybernetics,
Intelligence and Intuition.
The old C3I is a vertical control structure. Information passes
from a select few at the top, down to the
masses at the bottom. The new C5I2 is a horizontal control structure.
Information passes from small groups
to other small groups through what some call the Web, an interconnected
communications network made up
of mail, word-of-mouth, phone-trees, VCRs, FAX machines, audio cassettes,
free software and computer
networks. Control is not centralized in one person, group or place.
Each person is individualy responsible
for their piece of the whole. If for some reason, they are unable
to be responsible, their immediate group
wlll assist them. Groups assist and interact with other groups and
communities to form a Web of control and
responsibility that is much more powerful then ~ust having individual "leaders".
When we come together for a ritual such as a Full Moon Rave on
a remote beach, we are creating what
author Hakim Bey calls a Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ). A rave
creates a TAZ of relatively short
duration, only a few hours, but during that time, we are functioning
at the level of Community. In the area
that has been appropriated, a separate code of ethics and behavior
can be enacted. The Authorities are
troubled when it becomes apparent that sections of society don't
want or need their policing activities. It is
not part of their model of society to have a gatherlng of several
hundred people from diverse backgrounds
and classes without the eruption of violence and exploitation. The
Authorities are frightened because they
are not needed; which means they no longer are in control. Think
about the ramiflcations of this. The
strength of a TAZ formed by rave activity is not measured in how
many people possess weapons or how well
they can out smart or out flank the police, but in how well the
group can function as a community, reach
consensus during a crisis, and cooperate to insure the safety of
each and every member of the group. When
we are raving, it is important to remember that if we don't want
to have the authorities at our events, then
we, EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US, HAVE TO BE THE AUTHORITIES. This does
not mean that we
should have "raver police forces", that's the old, Dominator
way of thinking. What needs to happen is that
we have to be just a little bit more AWARE of what goes on around
us, and learn to take care of people in
our immediate "family" as well as looking out for others
outside of our immediate circle of friends. If we
want to have parties in remote or underground locations, we need
to be able to handle minor emergencies
like administering first-aid, CPR and being able to "talk down" someone. This is what building Community
is all about.
Consensus and Cooperation go hand in hand with Community. Consensus
means collective opinion or
general agreement, it doesn't mean that you have to have the same
beliefs as your group. What it means is
that you are wllling to support the general direction that the Community
is going in or, if you feel strongly
about something, that you take responsibility for getting your point
across. With Communities that work by
consensus, the whole group cannot move forward unless EVERYONE agrees
or at least agrees to allow
movement, (i.e. steps out of the way). This is not the same as attempting
to change an agreed upon decision
once it has been decided, but it can include forming a contingency
plan if you feel that the decision is
"doomed to failure". The former is sabotage, the latter
is supportive. The majority opinion of the group also
has a duty not to "bull-dose" their opinion over the minority.
Remember, one person who firmly holds their
ground should be enough to stop what ever the majority decision
might be. That is the essence of consensus.
Cooperation insures that individuals or sub-groups don't abuse their
powers of veto or opinion, this is not an
easy thing to achieve in practice and is the major place that consensual
governments break down.
Communication and Cybernetics constitute the areas of opportunity
and challenge for our group. The
creative and dynamic use of these technologies will make the difference
between a "flash in the pan" fad, or
a serious contribution to global culture that we could make as the
CyberTribe . It is not necessary for each
and everyone of us to be a Hacker or "Computer Geek" but
we, as a group, should all strive to become
"computer literate". Just as you don't need to be an auto
mechanic to drive a car, you don't need to be a
programmer to be skillful at the use of computers. As the realm
of computers and telecommunications
continues to merge, computer literacy will become as important as
standard literacy is today.
The CyberTribe exist today. All over the world, thousands of ravers
communicate daily via e-mail over an international computer network called the latest techno trax, to
planning and organizing raves, to discussing
the Scene, politics, and the ultimate meaning of life. E-mail has
turned out to be an invaluable tool for keeping in touch with folks in our "family" as well as
the worldwide "Family". It also is a great aid at
building consensus and cooperation. Virtual sites, such as the VRAVE
telnet port, function 24 hours a day and provide a meeting place where ravers from all over the world
can meet, share ideas and socialize.
When Personal Communicators (pagers that can send and receive data)
come on-line in the near future, the CyberTribe wlll be able to communicate with each other at the speed
of light. At no other time in history has a movement had the facilities of high speed communication at their
disposal; this is signiflcant, but technology alone is not enough to make a difference. Each and every
one of us must strive to become more aware, and more loving. Not because our parents or some other authority
want it, but because it is necessary if we, our movement, and our House (planet) are going to survive
in the comming years.
Intelligence and Intuition are the glue that binds these diverse
areas into a functioning, organic whole.
Intelligence as we use it here, is the accumulation of knowledge.
On a mundane level, it is knowing the laws,
behaviour, policies and procedures that the Authorities will utilize
in their dealings with us; for example the
techniques the Milwaukee Police used to bust 950 people at a rave
last year and the legal strategies the
ravers used to combat this type of harassment by the police. (400
people pleaded not guilty and the charges
were dropped, the Milwaukee raver community is now flling a class
action suit against the City for civil
rights violations). On a higher level, it is learning about the
nature of the environment around you, which
includes everything from paying attention to and caring for your
body (It's your piece on the monopoly
board of life) to learning to care for the Planetary environment.
We are at the vanguard of western culture,
both socially and technologically, and as we gather and use Intelligence
information we must temper it's use
with Intuition.
Intuition can be summed up most simply by the phrase "Do the
Right Thing". If we look deep into our
Hearts, we can always flnd that place where we know what the next
step is. It may not be the thing that our
parents or our teachers or our leaders may want or tell us to do
but it is the thing that wlll always feel
"right". Sometimes it is hard to tune into this place
and find where our Intuition speaks to us. Sometimes
you have to just be still, but it is always there. When people as
a whole are acting from combined Intelligence
and Intuition, laws become unnecessary because it becomes obvious
what does and doesn't work.
One way to look at all of this is to view C5I2 as the technology
behind Temporary Autonomous Zones, and to
see the CyberTribe as a step towards the realization of Global TAZ
networks. The economic and social
strategies for this type of network are already being practiced
on a basic level. What we need more of is,
"Family values" but not the family that the dominator
culture speaks of, but the Global Family. This type of
awareness can start with your own individual "rave" family
and spread out from there. There are simple
things that each of us can do that increase the economic strength
of the CyberTribe, like buying from other
people in the "Family" as much as possible, bartering
for goods and services with other Family members
and offering discounts. These activities help to circulate our available
monies within the CyberTribe and
gives the Tribe better overall buylng power when purchases have
to be made "outside". It also makes it
more difficult for opportunists to exploit the trends and creativity
that we have as a group. As we grow older
and the Web becomes stronger and more extensive, economic prosperity
wlll extend with it.
It's up to us to pick up the pieces of a post Communist/Capitalist,
Us/Them "Dominator Culture" world and
transform it into a "Partnership Culture" world of "Global
Unity with respect for Cultural Diversity." It can
be done, but it wlll take work, most likely all of our lifetimes
at the least, but when all is said and done, we
will leave to our children, an intact planet which, wlll be back
on the road to health and prosperity, rather
than a sick, dying, world, flitting from crisis to crisis, awaiting
the apocalypse. The choice is ours now, as we
gather together in our dance rituals to build "the feelings
of togetherness, instill courage and break down
emotional and mental barriers".
Remember in the months and years to come as this tapestry that
we call the Scene unfolds...
"THEY MIGHT STOP THE PARTY, BUT THEY CAN'T STOP THE FUTURE"
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