Club Troppo

The term Stand Alone Complex was introduced by the brilliant animated series of the same name. An SAC involves individuals semi-spontaneously operating together. Participants may never have met and never meet again; nevertheless they act together in complex ways.

In the series the first such Stand Alone Complex is the attempted assassination of a police chief. Some people are “ghosthacked”, others join the attempt of their own free will. No organisation arranges the attacks, but the whole event is launched by the high profile appearance of “The Laughing Man” in the mainstream media (his logo appears to the left).

Recently groups have spontaneously formed to attack Scientology. I believe this may be the first recorded Stand Alone Complex of its kind, culminating in an initial round of physical protests.

This so-called “Project Chanology” was launched by a group calling itself “Anonymous” in a widely-publicised video on YouTube. The first round of protests attracted thousands of attendees worldwide, with London’s being probably the most successful, though protests were held all over the world, including Sydney and Melbourne.

Apart from the generous amount of internet humour / memes being woven into the protests, I was interested by the embrace of anonymity in person. Scientology has had an unpleasant habit of identifying those who oppose it as “Suppressive Persons”, who can be made “Fair Game” — subjected to harassment and dirty tricks of all sorts. Protesters reported that Scientologists videotaped them and made notes of number plates in the area. For this reason, the most widely used prop was a V Mask — a Guy Fawkes mask patterned on the one used in V for Vendetta.

Looks like a Deaf Mute — don’t you think?

Elsewhere:  Philosopher Quest!