Re: Jinx Smashed: a critical rebuttal to UE in the media.

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: True words are born. : I'm gunna burn them hitler-youth bastards flag. : T money : proud enemy of all things jinx : : : Allow me to dismantle this rubbish jinx rant point by point. The jinx view is reprinted here for ease of reading, with my rebuttals after each of their 3 points. : : ____________BEGIN JINX___________ : : "You guys, just had to go for the glory, didn't you... i read the article : : in Details magazine and thought i'd drop you a line...it would have : : stayed a nice nifty operation we all had, just quietly going about our : : business, harmlessly dropping in to places and taking a quiet look : : around, but now every IDIOT and his cubicle partner is going to go : : try..." : : - from a letter to Jinx magazine, 4/2000. : : Undergrounders and rebels, having rejected the constraints of societal : : ethics, distressingly tend to create new rules and obey them instead. : : The tortuous codes of honor among thieves disappoint because they : : highlight our fear of freedom; they suggest man is incapable of : : independence, and would rather obey than think. A self-imposed ethic has : : lately arisen from the Urban Exploration movement. The rule, as we : : understand it, is Urban Explorers Don't Talk to the Press. Three : : arguments are offered to support this code of conduct. First, it is : : said, talking to the press will transform the cozy family of Urban : : Explorers into a popular movement, with yuppies and other undesirables : : getting into the act. Tourists, in this scenario, will shortly arrive to : : ruin our unspoiled sewer pipes. Second, publicity of the illegal : : activities involved will bring the attention of police. Third, it is : : unseemly to seek the attention of the media; the love of exploring : : should be enough. These meretricious arguments collapse under Jinx : : analysis, as follows. : : 1. Neither evidence nor logic supports a theory that yuppie tourists : : will encroach on Urban Exploration. The argument suffers from its : : reduction of any non-member of "the club" to a stereotype. Say we find : : some uninitiated wanderer in some favorite sub-basement, and it : : transpires he has been drawn into this hobby by an article in Details or : : a televised interview with Jinx. What basis have we for dismissing him : : as a yuppie? The characteristics we disparage in real-life yuppies are : : not likely to describe someone crawling through a storm drain. If we can : : define a yuppie as a shallow, materialistic, status-conscious careerist, : : we can also define him as a very poor candidate for sewer spelunking. : : The fear that our beloved tunnels and rooftops will become tourist : : attractions arises from an analogy between these urban sites and various : : scenic natural settings. Day trippers, with their litter and brats, have : : ruined many a fine secluded spot; why shouldn't they do the same in the : : dark passages of urban adventure? The absurdity of this analogy follows : : as the night the day. The natural habitats of Urban Explorers are not : : conducive to tourism. They are always illegal, usually dangerous, and : : often dark, cold, filthy places. : : ______________BREAK - START REBUTTAL _________________ : : : This is valid when arguing against 'yuppies', yet crumbles under the immense weight placed on it by the fact that publicizing these locations also aids the criminal element in finding locations that are easily ripe for criminal activity: whether it be bashing walls, setting fires, or waiting for an explorer or curious citizen to come along and be victimized via assault, rape, and potential murder. These locations lend themselves well to such activities as many are unpatroled and unwatched by persons of legal authority. Jinx, via not removing posts to this board from the criminal element, and publicizing exploration in the media, must be perfectly comfortable with such an arrangement . : : : _____________BACK TO JINX:______________________ : : 2. Certain UE buffs have gravely warned that the media coverage of Urban : : Exploration will bring police attention. Implied by this suggestion is : : that real harm will come of this attention; to wit: a rash of arrests, : : and perhaps violence, will result. : : This kind of cowardly foolishness is the despair of all true : : adventurers. The disease of paranoia elevates a person's sense of : : self-importance to such absurd heights he believes others would bother : : to persecute him. The fantasy that the police would concern themselves : : with the harassment and capture of serial trespassers is strange enough; : : it becomes incredible when we imagine they would devote the resources : : necessary to stake out every storm drain, cellar, subway tunnel, : : rooftop, hotel, and bridge. : : _____________________BREAK______________________ : : : That jinx would be so bold as to dare claim to speak for 'all true adventurers' is both sad and pathetic. It also, ironically, is an attempt to 'elevate a person's (in this case, jinx) self importance to absurd : : heights' via an attempt to be the spokesmen for all the UE world. Adventurers are individuals and groups, and always have their own views towards these matters just as every human walking the face of this planet holds their own opinions on a wide range of subjects. : : The jinx thesis is further eroded by a monsoon of hard facts concerning current police science: increasingly, police departments are utilizing military hardware, often to arrest those 'going where they are not supposed to be'. You only need look in jinx's hometown to see this: the NYPD, frustrated by infiltrators, the homeless and graffiti artists in the : : subway tunnels, are now utilizing heat-sensing scanners, night vision equipment, and hidden video cameras to keep an eye on a growing number of tunnels. They have dedicated, specially trained personnel focusing on this issue. This is common knowledge to anyone who cares investigate. : : These are undeniable facts, which crush the jinx opinion like the roach it is. : : : ____________________BACK TO JINX:_____________________ : : 3. The significant part, driving all other arguments opposing the : : publicizing of Urban Exploration, is a cringing hatred of fame itself. : : Without resort to rationale of any kind, some among us are tempted to : : lash out at others for being "media hungry," for seeking glory. This : : invective raises an essential question about adventure. Why do we : : explore? : : Exploration is a grasp for power. It is a bloodless path to new : : territory. The urge to expand ever outward, as a tree reaches ever : : deeper into the dark soil and higher into the air, is the central drive : : of all life. Every new environment on earth, however harsh, yields life : : - bacteria grow on the superheated volcanoes at the bottom of the sea, : : in the waste water of nuclear power plants and in the solid fuel of the : : space shuttle. It is no accident we feel an instinct to probe the : : unknown. It is our most fundamental purpose. : : The same will to power that tempts us into new territories will urge us : : to jealously guard them. Having gained a new outpost, we fortify it : : against others who might seek to share it with us. Likewise, we guard : : the new identity gained through exploration. We struggle against its : : dilution by latecomers. The wish to enshroud our urban proving grounds : : in secrecy is finally an attempt to stave off trespassers from land we : : claim as our own. The wish to keep the general population excluded from : : our movement is a fear that popularization will water down our identity. : : This is the dark side of power, a wish to protect out of cowardice what : : we have won by courage. In clinging to our status as explorers, we : : forfeit it. A true explorer isn't wedded to his land. He is rootless and : : striving. When we barricade ourselves in fortresses, we imprison : : ourselves there. The true spirit of exploration admits no exception to : : the Infiltration credo: go places you're not supposed to go. : : Fear must not silence us, Nor must territoriality or unreasoned : : moralism. We have an obligation to the truth, and to the brave : : everywhere seeking new grails to hunt for. The tradition of exploration : : has always brought an open exchange of information, both with fellow : : explorers and with the laity. The news and entertainment media are : : weapons. Will we use them, or let them be used against us? Will we cower : : in the darkness as outsiders define our profession? Or will we guide the : : press in defining Urban Exploration for the world, so that true : : adventurers might join us in our task, and softhearted dilettantes might : : know where they must fear to follow? : : ___________________END JINX:_______________________ : : : The question here is 'why would one seek publicity and the attention of the media, as the love of exploring should be enough'. Unfortunately, jinx's response fails completely to address the criminal and legal attention such publicity has brought UE. Indeed, it is very easy to argue in light of the above mentioned facts regarding police and criminal action that Jinx has single-handedly done more damage than an other in this regard. : : Seeking out the press for jinx is a way to make money. to publicize their media design firm, and ink lucrative contracts. Profit is the main motivation behind Jinx's drive to explore .This is a cold, hard, undeniable truth, plain to anyone with their eyes open to see. : : : : You can delete this post, and delete all the posts from the criminal element that has taken to this board, and stop talking to the press as well, but your reputation will forever be tarnished. I did not need to : : make this post - as a vast majority of true explorers already hold these and similar views as truth. I can only suggest you cease embarrassing yourselves with this site and move on. One more dot-com failure won't make any headlines. : : This is my last post to this board, because any reply you can muster will be only be damage control not worth further effort. In case you have not figured it out yet, your organizations image has been mortally wounded. You can try to stop the bleeding, but the damage has been done. It is only a matter of time before you are drained dry. While I might be said to enjoy causing such damage, it must be stated that it is jinx via it's own arrogance and foolishness that has destroyed jinx, thus I can claim no credit for this destruction (though I have painted the image of this damage for all the UE to see quite well, I must state). Thus I thank them for saving the society the trouble of dragging them down. : : Love, : : Agent seX, : : Your worst nightmare. : : "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" - William Jefferson Clinton.

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