Forum - View topicA real life Stand Alone Complex
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Chamrin
Posts: 10 |
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I hope this isn't too off topic, but I thought it'd be the perfect place to talk about this.
Ghost in the Shell : Stand Alone Complex is easily one of my favorite (and many other people's favorite) anime. Now it seems life is imitating art or more accurately life is just proceeding as it will and the art accurately predicted it. In the anime, numerous people each act on their own as a "copycat" Laughing Man against the multi national corporations they saw as too controlling or corrupt, but there is no original Laughing Man, and no leader. Yet a coherent whole emerges. A similar thing is happening these days with anonymous as they aim to expose Scientology. Scientology is desperately running around trying to find a leader to target, and they can't find one, because each individual is acting on their own. Some people are clearly aware of it. The laughing man face-over is being used as a protest sign here: 
This blog describes the effect pretty well. So what do you guys and girls think? Is this scary or cool? And will this work? |
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sirgalahadthegreat
 Posts: 108 |
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I don't know if it'd really work, but if it did...I'd be scared. That's the truth.
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BellosTheMighty
 Posts: 767 |
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That's not how I remember it... as I recall, there was an original Laughing Man, a genius hacker who was able to hack people's brains easily, and who occasionally assumed a different identity. His signature and M.O. later got co-opted by people who wanted to conceal their own goals, and Section 9 wound up chasing them both at the same time.
Maybe you're thinking of the Individual Eleven? Anyway, I think the whole Anon thing is worth watching, if only because it's a revolutionary approach to social protest. And it is potentially dangerous- fundamentally, these people are motivated by an ideal rather then guided by an individual, which means that the potential for perversion of the ideal towards malicious, destructive, or just counter-productive ends is high. Though admittedly probably less then if they had a *bad* leader. But I think the whole thing is overblown. The sign coupled with the V masks makes them look like a bunch of pretentious dicks playing at revolutionary furor, though the mask that's a TV-static blur over the face is pretty cool. Besides, discrediting Scientology seems somewhat pointless given that it's already a stock punchline in pop culture. |
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DerekTheRed
 Posts: 3544 Location: ::Points to hand:: |
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Err, I think somebody just took the spray paint feature of Paint to the image. |
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Murasakisuishou
 Posts: 1469 Location: NE Ohio |
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I also made this connection; I even wrote a paper on it for school
And if I remember right, spoiler[there was no original Laughing Man; Aoi himself admits this at the end of episode 26, when he says that he decided to expose the truth about the Murai vaccine because of a piece of mail he found on the 'net. ]He never called himself the Laughing Man; it was a name given to him by the media after he started using the logo to hide his face (similar to how a lot of the 'Anonymous' thing started up after that hysterical slow-news-day Fox story). There are parallels to the Individual Eleven, though, in the fact that Anonymous acts cohesively even without a leader. Still, I've been very impressed with the Anyonymous protests on Scientology so far. They've been peaceful and have made sure to abide by the protesting regulations in whatever community they're in, and ultimately I think their cause is worthwhile; while Scientology may be a standing joke of pop culture, it's an organization that has caused the deaths of others and extorted millions of dollars from many more, and it needs to be taken seriously. Ultimately, Anonymous' issue is not with the beliefs of Scientology, but with the organization of the church, and the fact that its followers have to pay for information. I've been following this pretty actively because I think it's fascinating. If nothing else happens, Anonymous is at least spreading awareness about what really goes on in the Church. Ultimately the Laughing Man had a noble cause as well (wanting to spread hidden information so people would demand the release of a medicine which could save many lives), and it was only his copycats spoiler[and the government officials controlling them] that gave him a bad name. |
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Jih2
 Posts: 403 Location: East coast |
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It's funny you mentioned this. A day or two ago a user appeared on Youtube and within two hours had posted around six videos exposing the identities of six protesters from Anon's protest on Scientology. It would appear his account has been "suspended." The username was pethyl12.
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LatwPIAT
 Posts: 26 |
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I object to this statement.
While Project Chanology is indeed similar to a Stand Alone Complex, it is also fundamentally different. The Stand Alone Complex deals with individuals who are motivated to take individual action based on the actions of others, while Project Chanology deals with individuals acting as a group. (Let's call it a "Legion Complex") The Stand Alone Complex starts with spoiler[a mail about] a corporate cover-up, which leads Aoi to hold the corporate head hostage. His action causes other people; individual hackers, to reveal corporate blackmail cases. There was never any "Laughing Men," just a lot of people who pretended to be the Laughing Man. Later, Gouda creates several Individuals, who all appear in very, very small groups. The largest group was of 12 spoiler[(The ones that execute each other with swords)] and it was made from smaller units that had joined forces. (The greatest of which was pairs of people) All the people involved in the Stand Alone Complexii are individuals, all taking to action what they believe to be right alone. The Legion Complex, as illustrated in Project Chanology and earlier events (Habbo Hotel, etc.) are people who are part of a group, and do things a group. Alone, these people whould have done nothing, maybe except complain in a forum. As a part of a group they motivate each other to take to action. There is no single "Anonymous" to terrorise corporate excecutives for blackmailing. Rather, hundreds and thousands of Anonymous terrorise and protest against whatever they're against. In a Stand Alone Complex, it is a from of CopyCat behavior. Person A does something, person B does something similar. In a Legion Complex, it's a group mentality. Person A has an idea, and persons B through ZZZZ follow that same idea. While the SAC and the LC are similar in many ways, I wouldn't say they are the same, based on how thye manifest. All this writing makes me want a third (Fourth?) season. |
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Vortextk
 Posts: 892 Location: Orlando, Fl |
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They were both considered a stand alone complex in the anime. The TC is talking about the laughing man case but remember(GiTS season 1) spoiler[that not even the original hacker had anything to do with the corporations and the events that unfolded with them. Actually, very few people "took up arms" so to speak as well. Most of the actions deemed the laughing man were not individuals acting out, but corporations getting deals done in the dark and washing away secrets. Of course some regular people were involved, like the episode where many people try to assassinate the government official. I'd need to watch this again to talk about it easily; tough but I had fun following everything.] Kind of rehashing what you said Bellos. Anyway, if all they're doing is protesting and speaking out without leaders, I wonder how fitting "stand alone complex" works here.(But I am ignorant of this situation) The whole point in the anime was that regular people were taking drastic action without any outside force other than a want to mimic, not just protests. Of course a lot of things in the anime are most probably too complex/unrealistic(in a sense) to actually happen so the criteria for a SAC goes down a bit in reality I would think. Obviously the poster being held in the picture implies GiTS and a relation to it as well. I agree that using V/The Laughing Man may be a bit far fetched and corny, but there are simply no figures like that in real life. Upon further reading of that blog, I suppose the "copy cat with no actual original" effect is what really makes this stand out. It's a fascinating phenomen that coupled with everything else in GiTS easily made it one of my favorite anime and I'm interested to see it in the real public. I wonder that without exceptional miracles, which is what we can call some of the things that happened in GiTS, can this do better than any regular protesting. |
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Chamrin
Posts: 10 |
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It's one of the tactics they are using, trying to scare people away. However I think it is not working as they intended since it kind of pisses people off, and that just makes them do more.
I think you successfully made them sound like they are more of the same thing than different. Part of the problem is there really isn't a set definition of "Stand Alone Complex", we only have what happened in the show. But let me try to highlight the differences that I think you're trying to point out. In both cases their actions are fueled by other people's actions and words. If it wasn't for other people exposing certain things or doing certain things they wouldn't have a trigger to act. However anonymous sees themselves as a "group"/collective, while the subjects of the show did not, they were truly acting alone.
Agreed.
I think that everyone who is actively doing something has no desire to do anything illegal, nor will they condone other people doing illegal things. They realize that it is not necessary to achieve the goals they desire, the end of Scientology. That isn't to say there aren't people who will do something illegal, just that most people are against illegal activities. You're right in the fact that the show diverges from reality because people aren't really acting like you'd expect them to act. If they found something that indicts someone, all they have to do is spread it to enough people and eventually the truth will be known. The action of taking drastic action seemed far fetched.
I'm not really sure. Protesting before this was often subject of ridicule (and still is). The people who were most likely to ridicule it are some of the very same people who are actively protesting now. Quite ironic I think. But I think the anonymity in these protests do several things. The first is the most obvious, it's protection against retaliation by the cult. Second it draws attention to the cause because people wearing masks on the street in great numbers is something new. With new things, people become curious, and it presents a common image in people's minds. Finally, what I think is the most important, is it separates a person's identity from the ideas they present. It forces people to evaluate ideas based solely on the logic of it, as opposed to deciding if they like the person or not. How many times in arguments, or politics in general, are people's identities used to drown out the ideas they present? |
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LatwPIAT
Posts: 26 |
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Thanks for simplyfying it. That's exactly what I meant.
Interestingly, wearing masks was forbidden in at least one country (Norway,) yet they still had the protest. Of course, the CoS probably isn't as strong in Norway as it is in USA, so people wouldn't fear the retaliation. |
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