~~~~~~~~~W E L C O M E T O~~~~~~~~~
An International Zine For Activists
What is "Episcopus?"
"Episcopus" is a latin word meaning "overseer." It is often used to refer to a
church bishop, for obvious reasons. This is not the manner in which it is used
for this page, more on that below.
What do you mean by "activist?"
Most people probably think of activists as "radical," a word/label that is often
misused in mainstream society, members of a society engaged in "unlawful"
actions, often violent, to get their beliefs uncompromisingly imposed on, or at least
exposed to, the wider society. For instance, environmentalists chaining themselves
to logging equipment to stop clearcutting despite, say, a court injunction against
such protests or an anti-abortion group bombing an abortion clinic. This is, to say
the least, a very narrow conception of activists; true, this is one, but only one, kind
of activism which, in some cases, can be justified. Something that all activists
have in common, however, is that they all, as the label implies, "act" on their
beliefs in a variety of ways. In my view, activists have three other common
characteristics.
1) They all question the status quo. Those who seek objective truth as
unbiasely as possible investigate society systematically and scientifically.
They ask fundamental questions whose answers lie beyond superficial
explanations and use a wide array of resources in their quest for
knowledge. In other words, activists interested in the underpinning,
often unseen truth, as it is covered up by the rhetoric of the dominant
interests or ideology that justifies the established order, that lies at the
base of a society seek it through a systematic, scientific investigation
and not mere deductive reasoning (answers derived from the mind's
own resources) which lead to simple, subjective assumptions which are
often empty, invalid and which lead to debates with similar qualities.
In short, an activist engages his/her mind in active questioning of
his/her society and its accepted beliefs and seeks answers to those
questions. The answers, in turn, lead to action.
There are activists, however, which engage in issues with
preconceived notions of the truth of their beliefs and thus act not on
objective truth but on personal, unquestioned beliefs or faith. These
activists either ignore data which contradicts their preconceptions or
argue it away in abstract terms, often grouping their enemies in a single
statement. Religious anti-abortionists are a good example of this type of
activists; these people denounce scientific data illustrating that the foetus
is not a human by calling it anti-family, atheistic, and socialistic and
using religious doctrines as proof. This type of activism must be
avoided if real answers to real problems are to be found. Otherwise,
the world will be run on assumptions not objective facts.
2) Activists normally gather
with others sharing the same or similar
views, especially since most problems are social and not just personal.
Such collectives may be narrow, focussing on 1 or 2 issues, or very
diversified, made up of people with a wide array of concerns. In the
case of the latter, one may expect such a group to be incohesive and
easily defeated through internal struggles. However, the truth is quite
the opposite. Such groups usually share a common ideology and
priortise their main concerns; after all, society is constituted of many
problems not just a few. These groups than act upon their beliefs by,
for instance, holding protest rallies, living a certain lifestyle, publishing
literature, undertaking deep studies, etc.
3) All activists are made not born. One becomes an activist when
he/she engages in deep questioning of his/her society and world and
seeks answers to them. As a result, activists are constantly developing
or redeveloping themselves as new problems arise and new data to old
problems surface. Hence, one may be a member of a racist
organization one day because, for example, he/she may have been
raised in a racist environment where proof to the equality of the races
was either hidden or argued away, but be part of an anti-racist group
the next as he/she engages in discussion of racism and is influenced by
scientific data that disproves previous notions.
What is this page about?
I will be providing information usually ignored by mainstream society, in
whichever one you may be living. As the title says, this is an "international" site
and so will include news from around the globe. This site will not only deal with
current events but with economic, historical, ideological, theoretical, cultural, social
works and issues.
The facts on here will be objective; having said that, I must admit that
nobody can be purely objective and so my opinions and interpretations will
be intermixed with the facts. However, the objective portion will never be
overshadowed by the subjective unless I am writing a polemic, which will be
noted as such literature appears. As the title suggests, I will "oversee" things from
the perpective of the whole and not from the part (with specific interests in mind)
except in certain stated writings.
As far as updates are concerned, I cannot fully commit to any rigid schedule
at this time for my university schedule keeps me very busy, so visit often for
changes.
Get your own Free Home Page at Geocities
WARNING
Some of you may not agree with what is stated on the pages that follow so enter at your own discretion. Also, it has come to my attention that many internet surfers do not agree with freedom of expression and so have engaged in email bombings and/or massive emailing campaigns resulting in a server becoming inoperable in order to stop the flow of information with which they do not agree. The Institute for Global Communications pulled, on July 18, 1997, a page from their server that was supporting the Basque independence movement in northern Spain because this happened and was causing all other pages on the server to be unreachable. Hence, for the time being, I am not providing an email address; although this will probably not stop any loser that wished to destroy this site. I do not believe, however, that although containing controversial information, this page will induce such dictatorial, immature crap! But, who knows? There are a lot of losers on the net even though they may be in the minority!
