Brian says:

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Hmm... the problem is I don't think a majority of the people at raves are focused enough to concentrate on something as technical as that (I KNOW it isn't technical to you and me, but the average raver doesn't even know what the word encryption means). HOWEVER, raves ARE the ideal place to hand out info about what's going on, something the raver can cling onto to read and understand when he's not high on {vibes,music,drug,etc.}. Give pointers to where to get more info or where to obtain PGP, and perhaps most importantly, WHY THEY NEED IT. Within a certain amount of time, but most likely sooner than any of us anticipate, there will be more people with email access than without, so "taking the message to the streets" is becoming less and less of a fanciful idea....

Speaking as someone who has been a pretty hardcore raver for almost 2 years now my view on this is as follows: 1) Most ravers don't want to be preached to, they do want to be informed though, the best approach is an "access to tools" approach of invite and education. I think that as of right now, not many ravers even have e-mail, although there is a very organized group that does and is strongly networked already. Some of them know about PGP. We have already discussed whether our e-mail lists should be encryped and the idea was rejected by the group at large. Some of us do send encrypted messages back and forth sort of as a novelty, sort of for practice. I think the best thing to do for this organized group is to educate them and at least get them to generate keys for themselves IF THEY WANT TO. Education is important they have to realize that the key is like a bank card password , you don't tell everbody what it is. Many people are in altered states at raves, this is NOT the set or setting to have them generating keys with pass phrases that they have to remember. 2) I am on a drive to "wire-up" the rave community, in the next issue of CyberTribe-5, I have an article on PGP and why ravers should get hooked up to e-mail. The e-mail advantage is clear for many ravers... the ones who are wired always seem to know where the best parties are. Why we need encryption is not as clear. The scene is about openess, we are well aware that LE folks are most likely on our lists, we don't post the truely underground events anymore to public list. We set up phone trees and private e-mail trees for events like the Full Moon Rave. This has been sufficient to keep the authorities from having preknowledge of our events. I personally hope that most organizers learn about e-mail and at least generate keys in case there comes a time that the Scene really needs secure communication between people (I think this time is not too far off). 3) I have seen some activity by the libertarian party around the rave scene in SF. I've thought this to be curious but as I think about it, it makes sense, many ravers would most likely embrace large portions (but not all) of the libertarian ideals. Most ravers are not overtly political in the classic sense of the word. Although there is sort of a "Politics of Ecstasy" :) so to speak, we find that a lot of the problems that the left is still struggling with like, equality for women and people of color (within their own ranks!) are non-issues for us. We don't need affirmative action policies because as a social group, we are intensely homogenous, when you party with people across race,gender,sexual orientation, lines, it become easy to work with them, you naturally build a network of trust that is multi-cultural. As far as capitalism is concerned many young people in the Scene have developed their own companies from the selling of T-Shirts to "other things" that people buy at raves. They have no great love for "taxation" or interfearence by the "State" The scene is forging its own economic web and they are finding that economic co-operation is more productive then traditional competition, e-mail and encryption can help here. Raving IS a social political statement, sort of like the people in (pre) nazi germany who danced to swing,jazz,blues music which the nazis said was a "degenerate" type of music from the negro. You can go to a rave, dance to socialy unacceptable music, confront Authority with a statement but not land in prison (at least not in this country). Ultimately raving is not just another disco, it IS NOT a pick-up scene as most people going for that reason have discovered, it is not even a drug scene although there is drug use at raves (there are also some folks who have sex). The Scene IS about a persons right to CONSCIOUSNESS, knowledge and the right to think what ever thoughts s/he might want to think using whatever tools are at their disposal. The main goal of the raves that I go to are to reach that ecstatic state that some refer to as "The Vibe". This usually happens in the wee hours of the morning after 2 am when all the alcohol drinkers go home. This state is accessable via drugs but you need the beat as well, advanced ravers don't need the drugs any more to go into trance, this type of trance dancing is little understood in the west but is common throughout africa, india and parts of the middle east. 4) OK so the bottom line is I think that a SIMPLE flier informing these young people what is at stake as far as their present and future freedom of thought/speech/privacy sould be handed out. Low on rethoric, high on information. Have a lap-top available for the advanced ones who know/comprehend what PGP is and want to be able to use it. Don't blindly give out floopies, most will never be used. This message has been long but I wanted to INFORM the group who might have had preconceived ideas about the scene. I am willing to answer any questions that anybody might have, off-line. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEXUS SYSTEMS/CYBERTRIBE-5 : Voice:(415)965-2384 Fax: (415)327-6416 Editor/Instigator/Catalyst : Geoff White Production Crew : Universal Movement Trinity "They might stop the party, but they can't stop the future" --PGP Public key available upon request-- AT&T:Phones with Big Brother Inside, Just say "NO" to the Clipper wiretap chip! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------