etoy vs. eToys: anarcho-Dadaist clash of the titans

Leaving Reality Behind is a new book that chronicles the wars between etoy, the Swiss anarcho-Dada collective, and eToys, the multi-billion-dollar idealab! startup that tried to crush them. The first chapter and prologue are online, and the personal stories of the etoy people read like a scene out of an early Gibson novel.

During the coming months Herbert spent much of his time in the squat. With a cafe, a bar, a cinema and a concert venue, the place quickly took on the character of an underground cultural centre; it was illegal, for a start, but perhaps its most subversive feature was the 'junkie room', where heroin addicts could go either to shoot up or to receive medical help. But, as with Herbert's radical school, amid the anarchy at the squat there was conflict. Late in 1991, when the new dance-beats of techno had arrived in the city, the squat's first rave was held in a basement. A squatter threw a teargas grenade into the crowd in protest because he considered techno too 'commercial' for this fiercely anti-capitalist space. Herbert and his friends and everyone else present were forced to make a speedy exit up a narrow staircase. The event turned him against the puritan spirit of the protestors.

Link Discuss (Thanks, Adam!)