Reading the bios of the five SFT members arrested and deported on nettime I felt as though I'd stumbled into some lost Doris Lessing novel where disenfranchised characters use activism as their own personal therapy then get caught up in the reality of their situations. Powderly doesn't seem the type for that and I hope he's all right, I haven't heard any further details of his situation. He seems to have, with all good intentions, allowed himself to be the fall guy.

China is one big sales counter these days and we all know how commerce trumps any kind of free speech. I wouldn't be surprised if the Chinese government is relieved all the attention is focused on the Free Tibet movement, diverting attention from their other, less glamorous problem areas that don't have the charisma of the Dalai Lama to front for them.

Klein is right, of course, she usually is, and nearly as charismatic as the Dalai Lama. Tibet is the kind of mini-disaster China can use to their economic advantage. Why in the world would they give up Tibet? Even the Dalai Lama has said this is a lost cause. So, to me, it's an example of wasted breathe (or light beams, in this case). Why not go after the real culprits: McDonalds, et al?

diffenbacchia

An estimated 130 million Chinese are now migrant laborers in their own country. This is one tenth of the population. They have been left behind by McCommunism, dispossessed from homes and villages that are now free economic zones or hydroelectric dams or even the Olympic Park in Beijing. They are an army of the disenfranchised, many homeless, subsisting on the outskirts of Shenzhen, Shanghai and other cities.

This dislocated proletariat is a national scandal, larger than the ethnic injustices perpetrated in Tibet. They pose a continuing security threat to the central government. So yes, the PRC leadership does not mind a foreign lunatic fringe that screams "Free Tibet!". It not only sidetracks the larger problem, it rallies the ethnic Chinese behind their government in the name of national pride.

As far as charisma, Klein has it, the Dalai Lama has it, Mao has it, I might have it, and so might you, diffenbacchia. Nice leaves.

The one aspect of the "free Tibet" movement that bothers me the most is the technocratic tendency to treat "Tibet" as software and believe that it should be "free" (as in free speech, not free beer). That is the reason GRL is involved and, more and more, the rhetoric coming out of the detention and deportation of Powderly. Granted, this is an interesting art proposition, but not very helpful to the people of Tibet. However I believe the aim of GRL is technocracy, not art, as is the driving force behind Eyebeam and most new media art. It's something I've harped on for the past ten years and will continue to do so, but not here. Seghal is an insteresting take on this, as is the "Nikeplatz" project of a few years ago. The provide an alternative to the GRL/Eyebeam technocratic aesthetic.

As for charisma. Here's a quote from the charismatic sociologist Richard Sennett from his "The Fall of Public Man" (1977). A good Catholic boy and Jesuit educated I've never found a reference to this "doctrine of charisma" elsewhere but then Sennett must just be channeling the word of God:

"Civility exists when a person does not make
himself a burden to others. One of the oldest
usages of "charisma" in Catholic doctrine was to
define such civility in religious terms. Priests
might be corrupt or weak men; they might be
ignorant of true dogma; some days they might want
to perform their religious duties, other days
they might be listless or skeptical. If their
powers as priests depended on what kind of
persons they were, or how they felt at a given
moment, they would become a burden to their
parishioners, who had entered the church in
search of communion with God but found, because
the priest was nasty or not feeling well, that
they could not make contact with God. The
doctrine of "charisma" was a way around this
problem. When he uttered the holy words, the
"gift of grace" entered into the priest, so that
the rituals he performed had meaning no matter
what the state of his person. The doctrine of
charisma was eminently civilized: it was tolerant
of human frailty at the same time that it
proclaimed the supremacy of religious truth."

Richard Sennett, The Fall of Public Man, 1977:
New York, W.W. Norton & Co., pg. 269

Thank you for noticing my leaves. I'm quite proud of them. I do want to ask what leave polish you use on your foliage?

diffenbacchia

Utter the sacred words or perform the ancient rites and the Holy Spirit can never fail but enter into you. Or into your parishioners. Is that it? We seem to be approaching the realm of magic and incantation. In the beginning there was the word, and the word was ... Abracadabra? Open Sesame?

The primacy of utterance is a featured part of the Charismatic Movement, which favors the speaking in tongues.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charismatic_movement

http://www.jeremiahproject.com/prophecy/charis1.html

http://mb-soft.com/believe/text/charisma.htm

"In the charismatic movement speaking in tongues, glossolalia, occupies a significant place. Speaking in tongues is generally understood to be communication with God in language that is other than one known to the speaker. A person does the speaking, that is, he freely uses his vocal apparatus, but it is claimed that the Holy Spirit gives the utterance. It is viewed as transcendent speech by the enabling of the Holy Spirit."

"The essential charismatic claim about glossolalia is that this is the vehicle of communication par excellence between man and God. It is the language of transcendent prayer and praise. In tongues there is speech to God which goes beyond the mental into the spiritual. Charismatics frequently state that in tongues there is a fulfillment of the intense desire to offer total praise to God not only with the mind but also with the heart and spirit."

Vout-O-Reenee Dictionary
http://www.pocreations.com/vout.html