Mama, I want to be an outlaw
Written: Feb 12 '04 (Updated Feb 16 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Well written, funny and interesting.
Cons: Teaches you how to break the law and hurt people.
The Bottom Line: It is only worth reading if you appreciate the times in which it was written.
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| beena500's Full Review: Abbie Hoffman - Steal This Book: Twenty-Fifth Anni... |
The first thing that came to my mind when I read the title was: don't mind if I do!
Actually, I didn't steal this book (haha), but I followed the law and bought it. Once I was in a safe environment, I opened it and immediately wished I lived during the 1960's and 1970's.
With witty and sly jokes about Amerika, pigs (cops), and people in general this book is well written and captivating. Unfortunately I could not include all of the sections, due to wanting to keep a review from being as long as the book itself, so keep in mind that there is a lot more than I have written about in this book.
In this manual you learn to: "Survive! Fight! and Liberate!"
Survive!: you essentially learn to get free things, whoo! In this you learn how to get free food: from restaurants, food programs, supermarkets (you also get to shoplift from the supermarket too), wholesale markets (factories, slaughterhouses, fish places). You can also create a "Food Conspiracy" in which you train a group of your friends to hunt or hustle for free food. Also, you get some recopies at the end of this chapter: Street Salad, Hedonist's Deluxe and more.
"Organizing a community around a basic issue of survival, such as food, makes a lot of nitty gritty sense."
Free clothes and furniture: here you learn to steal clothes from shops, or pretend to be part of a charity organization to score clothing. You also learn to make sandals from a tire and make furniture out of cinderblocks and plywood.
Free Transportation: which has tips on hitchhiking ("Telling men you have VD might help in difficult situations"), on taking rental cars for a really long trip, breaking into freight trains, and getting into a bus without paying fare. You also get tips on skyjacking airplanes or getting in for free using a ticket trick.
Free Land and Housing: the free land you can get from the government, who happened to be holding thousands of acres in secret. Free housing: from communes (ranging from defense against people against communes to the ideal membership of a commune, also includes a list of communes), urban living (when and how to get the best apartment) and rural living (finding the best farm - yes farm - to live in, surveying the land and federal programs to get farms).
Free Medical Care: how to not pay the bill by sending it to a phony name and address, get free advice from doctors over the phone, visiting university hospitals and getting psychiatric help. Also includes information on birth control and treatments for sexually transmitted diseases.
Free Communication: how and when to hold a press conference, painting on walls, using the flag of the rebels (happens to be a pot leaf ) and constructing a radio station. You can also learn how to rip off pay phones using methods to trick the machine, or using foreign coins in lieu of American ones.
Free Money: how to counterfeit, rip off welfare, panhandle and collect on unemployment. All because “No book on survival should fail to give you some good tips on how to rip-off bread.”
Free Dope: interesting instructions on how to grow, dry and “ferment” weed, tips on how to buy (“Buy from a friend or a reputable dealer.”)
Fight!: “Tel It All, Brothers and Sisters.”
Starting a printing workshop: “Leaflets, posters, newsletters, pamphlets and other printed matter are important to any revolution.” In this section you get to learn which paper and ink is properly used, how to use a stencil machine, mimeograph machines (printing machines), duplicators (a sort of Xerox machine), silk screening and layout. You also get tips on setting up an underground newspaper, complete with a list of underground press and how to distribute and charge for your paper.
Guerrilla Broadcasting: legally. How to construct a transmitter and legal procedures and laws concerning broadcasting through the radio. For television: building transmitters, which TV system to use (Broadcast, Cable, Closed Circuit), how to take over a channel, using moderators and signals, how to construct an antennae and making miniature transmitters.
Demonstrations: in the non-violent way. Tips on getting publicity, when and where to demonstrate, how to dress for the demonstration (to protect against police violence, tear gas and use hiking boots so you can kick effectively. Selecting the best helmets (“You head stick out above the swarming crowd and dents like a tin can.”), gas masks and a gas chart to list the gas, its properties, effects, protection and so on.
Trashing: (“You should trash with a group using a buddy system…”), a list of weapons for street fighting, how to knife fight, using unarmed defense.
People’s Chemistry: creating various bombs, and a general bomb strategy (“This section is not meant to be a handbook on explosives…never use anti-personnel shrapnel bomb. Always be careful in placing the devices to keep them away from glass windows…Direct them away from any area in which there might be people.”
First Aid for Street Fighters: what to do (“Don’t panic at the sight of blood.”), and a list of medical communities.
Hip-Pocket Law: a list of lawyers’ groups, how to avoid a draft (“In most areas, a one-night stand in a mental hospital is enough to convince the shrink at the induction center that you’re capable of eating the flesh of a colonel.”) and seeking political asylum in Canada, Sweden and other places.
Liberate!: live like a rich person in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco using a directory.
What I enjoyed: In my twisted opinion I thought this was a good read. Although the technical parts were boring to me (See: Communication) I enjoyed the parts on getting things for free and the shoplifting parts made me want to try it out (although I won't). I also like that he always had the reader's safety in mind and other people's safety in mind.
What I did not enjoy: the parts on making bombs was interesting, but it distrubed me a little, becuase some people would actually make these. Also it annoyed me a bit that he grouped all cops in a bad way: against the people, oppressors, etc.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
beena500
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Reviews written: 24
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