While wandering the net I came across a trailer for a documentary called We are Legion : The story of the hacktivists.
N.B. : The documentary is being screened at various film festivals but I have not yet found a general release date for it.
This all started snowballing for me with thoughts on Anonymous (more here) as well as the Occupy movement and their relation to mythology. In mythology it's a common theme for a hero to take up arms (and/or wits) and attempt to defeat a tyrant-king or a monster of some sort. However in the case of Anonymous and Occupy there is no singular hero, no modern Theseus or Heracles leading the way. In the case of Occupy it resonated more for me with a mob of angry villagers armed with torches and pitchforks, like the ones that take the fight to Dr. Frankenstein and the monster he created. Though of course in this case the 'fight' takes the form of civil disobediance and pitchforks have been replaced with protest signs.
I then decided to see what further connections could be found in looking at Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, I did not have to look hard at all as perhaps the most interesting link is the book's subtitle; "or the Modern Prometheus". In Greek mythology Prometheus (from pro = fore and metis = thought making Forethought/thinker) is a Titan, moreover he is a Trickster-figure. Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to mankind which really didn't sit well with Zeus who subsequently punished him severely for it. Oh, and yes the title for this entry is a very bad pun on 'Prometheus Bound'.
Although the Promethean link applies more in relation to Anonymous than it does to Occupy for with their use of 'tricks' Anonymous shows it's dissatisfaction with how companies and/or governments or even religious institutions conduct their business and seek to change this by throwing a monkey wrench into the proverbial works.
While Prometheus may not be the typical Trickster figure he certainly shares the characteristics. Another telltale sign of Prometheus' Trickster qualities still survives today in language, as in Promethean which means: of, relating to, or resembling Prometheus, his experiences, or his art; especially : daringly original or creative. These traits are always found with any Trickster, but not all Tricksters are created equal for they can be demigods or gods, anthropomorphic, spirits, shapeshifters etc.
Regardless of what form they take a Trickster's actions will (un)intentionally reshape matters in a local, cultural or global sphere and regularly will suffer repercussions for it themselves. Some are more dark or destructive like Loki, whether from the original Norse myths or a reimagined version in blockbuster movies like The Avengers or Thor (thunder deities are previously discussed here).
Much like Prometheus, Loki was bound to a rock and suffered recurring torment. In his case it was for scheming to get another god, Balder, killed.
In Native American mythology Trickster often takes the form of Raven, Hare or Coyote depending on the region and at times they play crucial roles in the creation of mankind or they might even be the creator of mankind. Hermes is an example from Greek mythology and highlights another facet of the Trickster, that of messenger between gods and men.
There is an African trickster deity called Eshu who loves to cause trouble, in one story he manages to get a whole town in a fight just by walking along a road one day. As Eshu is walking, farmers working the fields on either side of the road notice him and later that day they meet up in the village and talk to eachother about the stranger that came by. The people that worked on one side are sure he wore a red hat while the farmers that had worked on the other side are convinced he was wearing a black hat and it isn't long before they come to blows over the argument. Eshu ofcourse had orchestrated the whole thing simply by wearing a hat that was red on one side and black on the other.
So under a multitude of forms and guises we can discover the Trickster archetype, but the constant factor is that he is an agent of change, more often than not through the chaos that follows his exploits.
Speaking of guises.. Anonymous has adopted the Guy Fawkes mask made famous through the movie V for Vendetta adapted from Alan Moore's graphic novel of the same name. You can read an interview with David Lloyd, the artist for the graphic novel, about Anonymous here.
The Trickster archetype goes well beyond the sphere of mythology, Carl Jung ofcourse came up with the archetypes in their relation to psychology but Trickster naturally is found in many other places as well.
The court jester is a good example from history and he is still found in the company of Kings and Queens in just about any deck of playing cards as the Joker.
Perhaps the best known Joker of recent times
In staying true to the archetype the Joker is the wild card, the one card the normal rules do not apply to and thus is able to shake up any game by making an appearance.
NB: There is a whole lot more to be said about Tricksters but since I don't feel like spending several hours amassing sufficient information and shaping it into a somewhat coherent write-up it will have to wait for another time.
Post Scriptum:
Synchronicity (: an acausal connecting principle or an apparently meaningful coincidence in time of two or more similar or identical events that are causally unrelated) does get funny, I'd been typing away at the above posting for a while and had already jotted down some points in the draft that I still wanted to mention and what Trickster/Joker-related video I would end this post with, like Steve Miller - The Joker. As the article was taking me a while to finish I decided to watch the movie Dark Shadows by way of a break.
Within a few minutes of starting it the first sync comes along with the torchbearing mob coming for the monster, later on I see that one of the characters is played by Johnny Lee Miller who, if you're of the appropriate age or perhaps geekiness, you will remember from the movie Hackers, which makes sync #2 .
(Full movie available online here. Hackers looks extremely dated now but there's an odd sense of prescience hanging over it. The hackers being matched against big companies and targeted by law enforcement are still current despite the movies' age. If you have some time to spare watch the movie as it is arguably a classic in it's own right.)
Now back to Dark Shadows as later still, sync number three occurred when Johnny Depp starts singing the lyrics to Steve Miller's - The Joker and this then brings me, in far too many words, to the appropriate ending of this post.
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