Date: Thu, 27 Jun 1996 23:25:37 -1000
From: Steve Wright <sjwright-AT-vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au>
Subject: AAA Launch Report


http://www.t0.or.at/aaa/1aaatt09.htm

>                                  AAA
> 
>                               [Image]
> 
>                       A Press Officer's Report
> 
>                               [Image]
> 
>                    by Jason Skeet, Inner City AAA
> 
>      9.
> 
>      Contrary to the absurd prejudice of certain government space
>      agencies who regard evolution as having come to an end with the
>      present-day state, military and corporate monopoly of space
>      travel, a new force is active in human space exploration, a
>      force so subtle that these government space agencies will be
>      incompetent to contain and stifle it. For those who still don't
>      know it, the Association of Autonomous Astronauts does not
>      exist except for those who are travelling with it. Or to go in
>      another direction, the Association of Autonomous Astronauts'
>      Five Year Plan for establishing a world-wide network of local,
>      community-based groups dedicated to building their own space
>      ships is well on target. The evolution of this force is
>      rendered daily more certain, and is stimulated by the growing
>      dissatisfaction of individuals all over the world, with the
>      failure of government controlled space exploration programs.
> 
>      As a Press Officer for the Association of Autonomous Astronauts
>      I often get asked by media hacks if the AAA is all a big joke.
>      These jibes are often accompanied with nudges and winks, as if
>      the cretinous journalist has let it be known that he is also in
>      on something. When I explain the seriousness of the AAA's plans
>      for local, community based space exploration, strange
>      expressions transfix the faces of these pathetic creatures.
>      They appear to regard me with a mixture of suspicion and
>      incomprehension, surely indicative of the extent to which their
>      notions of space exploration have been fully conditioned by the
>      dictates of government space agencies. These fools fail to
>      question current attitudes to space travel. They are doomed to
>      the same inertia and ultimate irrelevancy in evolutionary terms
>      that will also be the fate of those institutions that seek to
>      maintain the status-quo regarding the construction of space
>      ships.
> 
>      Whose space is it anyway? Current attitudes to space travel
>      will be entirely reinvented. The AAA regards this as part of an
>      evolutionary process that is already happening. If this process
>      requires the total transformation of society then the AAA
>      commands to make it so. There is no way out of the present
>      crisis of space exploration except one which is fundamentally
>      evolutionary. The AAA knows where it is going. The AAA knows
>      that the power is in all of us to make the future happen. The
>      AAA is making it happen, and it is making us happen. The AAA
>      recognises that space exploration is something to be realised,
>      not something that must be seized. The AAA is not that
>      interested in present-day forms of space travel (forms
>      conditioned by the state, military and corporate monopoly of
>      space exploration) - the AAA is more concerned with
>      possibilities.
> 
>      It has been one year since the launch of the AAA as an
>      independent, community-based space exploration program. A year
>      in which the marketing of the Internet as the latest technology
>      to save us all has reached new heights of hype. What vested
>      interests are really being served by the cyber-elites erecting
>      careers for themselves whilst staking out their claims on the
>      so-called 'new frontiers' of the net? It's no coincidence that
>      the technology of the Internet was originally designed by the
>      US military, the same military that shares in the current
>      monopoly of space exploration. But technology can be liberated.
>      By emphasising the power of anonymity and collectivity the AAA
>      outflanks the conventional forms of space exploration. There is
>      no limit to our space travel. The AAA will never make space
>      exploration the latest trend for the consumers of style
>      magazines. The evolution is happening, and if you're aware of
>      it you're already involved. Engage - if not, sleep on-line.
> 
>      What new perspectives are available to an independent,
>      community based space exploration program? Autonomous
>      Astronauts create social change through a continuous evolt
>      based on their own selfish desires for adventure. What else
>      could bring these pioneers together? Each human is in their own
>      way an entire universe of thought and being - so how could any
>      Autonomous Astronaut possibly endorse government space
>      exploration programs which are also connected, by their
>      military associations, to the wilful destruction of entire
>      universes? In zero-gravity the present day capitalist economic
>      framework will be transcended, as the technology required to
>      sustain life in space will also be harnessed to guarantee a
>      life of endless pleasure and zero-work (work in the sense of
>      capitalist wage slavery). Autonomous Astronauts construct their
>      own continuous games, which they alone have chosen to play,
>      whilst zero- gravity will dissolve the competitive urges that
>      are so discouraging to projects based on planet earth.
> 
>      The AAA's first year has seen many encouraging signs. New
>      groups have been formed in England, Scotland, Wales, France and
>      Italy. There is also promising activity from Autonomous
>      Astronauts throughout Europe and the USA. In January 1996 the
>      members of various AAA branches collaborated with Carlton TV on
>      a 15 minute recruitment video that was transmitted on national
>      TV as part of the 'Shift' series. And whilst South London AAA
>      were still compiling the data on their Dreamtime Mission that
>      took place over the winter solstice, on February 2nd Steve
>      Bennett launched his Starchaser II rocket over the
>      Northumberland moors. Despite his corporate sponsorship by the
>      Tate and Lyle sugar company, we welcome this example of
>      independent space exploration and would encourage Mr. Bennet to
>      align himself with the AAA's activities.
> 
>      With the declaration of April 23rd 1996 the AAA moves into a
>      new phase, an information war designed to completely demoralise
>      the dinosaurs of government sponsored space travel. As well as
>      this, the AAA will have no truck with commercial space
>      exploration projects, such as OUSPADEV, The Outer Space
>      Development Company, based in the USA. These entrepreneurs
>      simply want to exploit space travel as another arm of the
>      tourist industry. These scum will not be spared as the AAA
>      launches its propaganda attacks on the present-day state,
>      military and corporate monopoly of space travel. The documents
>      presented in this First Annual Report are the first shots to be
>      fired in this information war. They demonstrate how the AAA
>      moves in several directions at once, masters of the art of
>      deception who are determined to leave this planet by any means
>      necessary. As we are all fond of saying at Inner City AAA -
>      only those who attempt the impossible will achieve the absurd.
> 
>                                [Image]





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