CSJ Book Club: A Culture Jamming Project

Singa Crew SG

Culture jamming is a resistance movement to cultural hegemony and the homogenous nature of popular culture, executed by means of guerrilla communication.

On a more general level, culture jamming can serve as a vehicle for bringing awareness of various social movements.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_jamming

Introducing the Chee Soon Juan Book Club! (CSJ Book Club)

Who can join?

Everyone!

How to join?

By declaring yourself a member and getting a copy of CSJ's books. Pick a book . Any book. Hey, get all of 'em if you want.

What we do?

I have been promoting CSJ's books since last year on both the sammyboy forum and here. So far, we have seen very limited success. I have no way of tracking exactly how many copies were sold since my 'advertisements' started appearing, but I can tell you that the last time I went to the Select Book Shop, I was informed CSJ's books were all sold out.

That is good, but not good enough. We are still not reaching the larger part of the populace who:

a) do not shop at Select Book Shop or the Politics section of Kinokuniya.

b) do not visit this forum.

What to do?

Here's what we as individuals can do (without getting into trouble with the police).

Buy CSJ's books and disseminate them amongst the populace by leaving a copy or copies of the books in public places. You know. Restaurants, parks or bus-stops. Take your pick.

Leave a message with the book. Something along the lines of:

"You can either choose to read the Straits Times and believe in whatever the PAP wants you to believe, or you can read this book and we show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Help spread the message of democracy and pass this book on when you finish reading it."

It will be helpful to leave a link to the SDP website so anyone picking up the book will know where to get more copies.

How helpful is this?

Well, not as helpful as putting an advertisement on TV or the Straits Times, but we know that is not going to happen. We just have to work with what's available to us.

And it will not have as much impact as a full scale public protest, but we already debated this to death already. Many of us, for one reason or other, cannot or will not go out there and defy direct police orders. Fine. But that doesn't mean we should just sit at home and do nothing!

This CSJ Book Club project enables us to:

a) spread the message of democracy. That's a big deal, especially since we are bringing the message to the part of the populace out of reach of the forums. New demographic.

b) support the SDP.

... without risk of exposure or getting into trouble with the authorities. Some 'critics' may call it 'pathetic', but I say it beats doing nothing.

And sure, if I am the lone ranger doing this, it will not have any impact whatsoever. But if 50 people reading this go out there and get a book, that's a good start to our project. Think about the ripple effect that will cause!

What we hope to achieve?

Ultimately, we hope to see a new batch of educated voters: people who understand the issues, can see through PAP propaganda and vote responsibly.

In the short term, we are just interested in getting the message of democracy across to those still untouched by the internet forums.

I am not going to be overly optimistic and say we can start a counter-culture movement just like that. Some times, the books we leave out might just get trashed or picked up by a Young PAP.

On the other hand, our books may get picked up by interested parties and cause a ripple effect! We will never know unless we give it a shot.

To those 'critics' who ask: Why?

My answer is: Why not?

Crew

JJxJJ SG

CSJ???? -_-

how do you want people to trust a man who has misused funds and create so much trouble for himself?

googoomuck SG

CSJ???? -_-

how do you want people to trust a man who has misused funds and create so much trouble for himself?

Character assassination ! Bloodless murder !

Singa Crew SG

hmm... just to be absolutely sure I am being understood here. Because someone on another forum thought I was offering free books...

I am not offering forumners free books. I am encouraging them to buy CSJ's books and disseminate them amongst the populace by means of guerrilla communication.

In this case, by leaving copies of his books in random public places for people to see and pick up. Like I said, this is not the most efficient way of doing things but since conventional channels (such as distributing the books through big bookstores and newspaper vendors) are closed to us, we can only resort to 'guerrilla tactics'.

What I hope to achieve is to have copies of CSJ's books popping up randomly in public, to be picked up by interested members of public and to have these people become new members of the Book Club. The Ripple Effect is what I am talking about. And ultimately, these people who read the books would be educated on the issues affecting all Singaporeans. There you go, a new batch of educated voters.

And the costs involved in such a big scale project? Like I said, if I were the only one involved, it would amount to nothing. But if 50-100 people go out there and buy a copy each, that's something. And each person would probably end up paying less than 20 bucks for a copy. All they have to do is make a commitment to buy one book a month, and this movement would be on to a big thing. How much is 20 a month for an average person? 2 movie tickets?

I don't know about others, but I sure am more than willing to give up 2 movie tickets a month for a good cause. Especially since all Singaporeans (middle or working class) are affected by the issues Chee Soon Juan wrote about in his books. If they are not willing (yet) to take to the streets in protest, then at least they should know what's going on around them.

Crew

Poh Ah Pak SG

Most of Chee Soon Juan's books are already available from the public library.

http://vistaweb.nlb.gov.sg/

What we need is to destroy the mainstream media's monopoly on information and build up an independent media industry, not state controlled media industry.

It is this state-controlled mainstream media monoploy that keeps the people apathetic, ignorant and depoliticised and conditioned to vote for the PAP.

Singa Crew SG

Hi there Poh Ah Pak, thanks for your reply.

Yes, I am well aware of the fact that Dr Chee's books are available at the libraries.

But the thing is... His books are not placed prominently so that passer-bys will, out of curiosity or act on their impulse, pick up a copy and start reading. You actually have to know about Dr Chee's and his works in the first place before you can or want to search for his books at the neighbourhood library.

This CSJ Book Club is about reaching the 'unreachable'. You know, the ones who don't visit this forum or know very little about Dr Chee Soon Juan. These people will not wake up one morning and suddenly decide to visit the library and search for his books.

I already admitted that this Book Club will not be as effective as advertising in the mainstream media, but we know that's not going to happen. In the absence of other ideas, why not give this project a shot? It is something anyone can do at anytime. No planning or huge budget required.

Borrowing CSJ's books from the libraries will not help the SDP financially. Buying his books will.

And yes, I agree with you about ending the State's monopoly on the media. But that's a grand plan that will take much time and resources to achieve. On the other hand, the CSJ Book Club project is something anybody can do at anytime. This is a chance for the average joes out there, who are too afraid to participate in public protests, to do something.

Crew

t_a_s SG

.... misuse funds...., these are the interpretation of pap. You want to talk about misuse funds, there are so many misuse funds which no body dig up. misuse funds were labelled on CSJ. If he is not anti pap, then no problem with that. If Francis T Seow does not go against LKY, there is no problem with his income tax. You must see who u oppose.