"The truth is that while the hacktivist slogan, "The revolution will be digitized!" is certainly catchy, most techno-protestors have yet to prove themselves anything more than pests. Disorganized and occasionally reckless, many are content to deface Web pages with "Break the Bank!" graffiti; they are not engaging in powerful acts that might set the mandarins of globalization aquake in their boots." I was talking to someone, this evening, about being part of the hardcode scene when I was in high-school. I'm not sure how much any of us really thought about the complexities of some of things we raged against. For alot of people talk of smashing the state was just another way to be hardcorer-than-thou; a practice best evidenced in massive and prolonged drug taking. But there was an awareness of events in the world and an expectation, even if you were too stoned to talk straight, to question the forces and motivations behind them. We may have talked the talk more than anything but I think it was a valuable exercise intellectually and it was a good step more than some of the other people I knew were doing. see also : Talk Minus Action = 0! The strange history of Joey Shithead and D.O.A.