In 1944, the US Office of Strategic Services—now the CIA—published the "Simple Sabotage Field Manual," a top secret guide teaching the average citizen-saboteur how to fuck shit up without specialized tools or equipment or association with an "organized group." Declassified in 2008, the guide encourages clogging up toilets, letting "cutting tools grow dull," and dumping rice into gasoline engines. My favorite though are the tips for "General Interference with Organizations and Production:" Here are some about sabotaging meetings:
- Insist on doing everything through "channels." Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.
- Make "speeches." Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your "points" by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences.
- When possible, refer all matters to committees, for "further study and consideration." Attempt to make the committee as large as possible — never less than five.
- Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.
- Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.
- Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision.
- Advocate "caution." Be "reasonable" and urge your fellow-conferees to be "reasonable"and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.
As Pentagram partner Michael Bierut posted, this particular set of instructions "seems to have really caught on far beyond its original purpose."