THE YES MEN AND ACTIVISM IN THE INFORMATION ... - Index of

hacktivists and culture jammers are akin to activist or avant-garde art of the past, in that they
share similar targets: hacktivism attacks passivity, the “culture of spectatorship as well as the
anti-pleasure ethos of mainstream capitalist society.” 108 Hacktivists target weak spots in the
corporate machine in an attempt to shake culture from its passive, accepting role.
Often mentioned in hacking vocabulary or hacker manifestos, like that of The Mentor
(1986) and McKenzie Wark, is the comparison of hacktivism to Jujitsu. 109 Like the martial art,
hacktivism, or, as Saul Alinsky describes it, “mass political jujitsu,” utilizes “the power of one
part of the power structure against another part . . . the superior strength of the Haves become
their own undoing.” 110 This theme of political jujitsu is mentioned in the writings of RTMark and
the Yes Men as well. In a 1998 interview, Igor Vamos, speaking as Frank Guerrero, explains that
RTMark (and later, the Yes Men) use corporate trappings to attack corporations. “It is kind of
jujitsu or a judo move. We are using the effects and strengths of corporations . . . to unseat them
and to attack them.” 111 For hackers and digitally inclined artist/activist groups, the Internet
becomes the means by which they disrupt the power relations currently dictated by the
establishment. The common denominator between hackers, culture jammers, and activist artists
seems to be “the use of networked space as an enabler in challenging established ‘real world’
108 Klein, 282-83.
109 Galloway, 162.
110 Klein, 281.
111 Josephine Bosma, “RTMark Interview,” Nettime (September 13, 1998) http://www.nettime.org/Lists-
Archives/nettime-1-9809/msg00034.html, accessed November 11, 2003.
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