Snow Ball Fight as a Form of Social War
"Snow Ball Fights as a Form of Social War: or notes on how to turn snow ball fights into a force of insurrection"Snow Ball fights take where normal cities exist, where normally fun can not be held, or will not take place and turn them into a ground where anything is possible. Snow ball fight turns social relationships on their head; where people are used to the spectacle of the city they now create spaces for fun.
Snow brings the metropolis to a grinding halt. In Baltimore, non-city/emergency vehicles are banned from setting tire on city pavement, as Governor O'mailly calls for a state of Emergency. News shows for days have showed DC free from rush hour commuters. The mini-cities that dot all over central Maryland are calling for people to stay inside. The spectacle of the city, of the metropolis, literally becomes interrupted by the snow.
Despite this youth all over the DC/MD/VA are playing outside as work is canceled, places closed down, even the hipsters are getting into the fray organizing snow ball fights all over DC. 4
Streets that are normally used for cars or bikes to go to work, during the snow ball fight the mundane spaces become liberated space, today they become a play ground for those who won't be kept inside. After days, of facebook chatting and gchating, snow becomes a liberated space as youth out of boredom start organizing giant snow ball fights in city centers. Busy parts of down towns, financial districts, neighborhood parks. The world quite literally becomes a play ground.
Everyone who lives in these cities communizes these lost streets and blocks. What were wealthy play grounds become places fun for working class youth. On December 20th, DC anarchists showed up for the fun, with or without them local youth would of taken the opportunity to throw snow at a guy with a gun who later identified themselves as a cop. What anarchists did was force the tension between the cops and the rest of society, embarrassing MPD.
As people leave closed bars, or bars that didn't bother opening, spontaneous interactions out side the norm, people who normally would not say anything to each other become spontaneous friends. Those same friends throwing snow balls at cop cars that pass by banks and all physical representations of capitalism around us.
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What is continuing appeal of a snowball fight in a snowed in city, a city under siege by the weather, but to reclaim and actualize our need to engage in direct conflict with what we view as factors in our oppression. We reconnect with our youth, running through a white out city, pretending we were playing cops and robbers, always rooting for the winning team (robbers), as they cut down the police with white bullets flying through the air without mercy. Even as children we detested authority, and our games reflected this actuality. School attempted to strangle this need out of us, to attempt to reaffirm the governmental standard of authority.
What is our relationship to the streets that we walk every day, on our way to and from work? How does that relationship change, along with the antagonists for this relationship, when space is liberated and used for its intended purpose, social war? Would snowball fights transform space, and lead towards a more potentially liberating situation?
What is the potential appeal of a snowball fight in a snowed in city, a city under siege by the weather, but to reclaim and actualize our need to engage in direct conflict with what we view as factors in our oppression. We reconnect with our youth, running through a white out city, pretending we were playing cops and robbers, always rooting for the winning team (robbers), as they cut down the police with white bullets flying through the air without mercy. This actualizes our want to attack, without mercy, the systems of oppression that drown us everyday.
We are dream of insurrection, sitting out our mundane jobs, staring out the windows, images of a street battle swimming through the streets. Snowball fights are an actualization of this praxis, a reclaiming of space that is held in the hands of the few, an explosion of the social tension that is creeps up in all of our interactions. Hitting an Escalade with an ice ball, we remember what it could be like to exist in open confrontation with our class antagonists.
But what does it mean to reclaim this space in a simulation of insurrection? What does there state of emergency mean to us, but another chance to put feet to the streets and engage in simulated struggle? Snowball fights in this context are a reaffirmation of our want to directly control our space, to not be at the whim of greedy capitalists, to leave there homes, there jobs, and actualize attack.
"You might as well as *thrown* the damned pieces at the Pigs! You *really* wanna mess with Whitey? I can show you how. *I* can show you how!"
-written by cabin fever crew
