BY QUITTERIE GOUNOT

In print | Published October 7, 2010

How do you get a common American citizen to sign a petition whose stated purpose is to increase global warming, leading to a new ice age? Just ask the Yes Men, which is comprised of activisits Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, who undertook this peculiar project and managed to convince a surprising number of people of the benefits of government policy favoring global warming. Bichlbaum and Bonanno sought to expose, through exaggeration, what they saw as major flaws in environmental policy under the Bush regime. The Yes Men will be presenting this popular albeit controversial form of activism during their visit to Swarthmore today.
As their aliases Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos, Bichlbaum and Bonnano devise and enact a series of elaborate pranks with particular political messages. According to their website, their mission is “identity correction,” that is, “impersonating big-time criminals in order to publicly humiliate them.” Those whom they believe to be most in need of this kind of correction are “leaders and big corporations who put profits ahead of everything else.” The name “Yes Men” comes from the concept of manipulating ideas one might seem to agree with on the surface in such a way as to make its negative, deeper implications apparent.
A number of the college’s departments and professors, such Associate Professor of Theater Erin Mee, joined forces to bring the Yes Men to campus as part of the Cooper Series. “I love their work. I think it’s very powerful and interesting,” Mee said. Mee had used the Yes Men’s work in several classes she taught in the past and this semester, she incorporated the Yes Men in two of her courses as the duo uses theatrics to promote social change.
The Yes Men’s relevance to the Swarthmore academic scene ranges far beyond just theater. The Yes Men incorporate political and social issues into their acts, which include issues of corporate greed and abuses of power. Their acts also resound with professors in the Art History department.
“I have assigned the [Yes Men] lecture to all of my classes, but the students in my honors seminar on avant-garde practice in the 20th Century have been asked to consider how these events, and the Yes Men’s practice in general, might be considered avant-garde” Art History professor Janine Mileaf said. “I’m asking them to put these ‘pranks’ into an historical context, and look for precedents for this kind of engagement with the social sphere.”
While the Yes Men’s style of activism certainly has its fans, it is also controversial. The Yes Men claim to “tell little lies to get at bigger truths.” Whatever their ends, some would insist, they still use dishonesty and deception as some of their main tools. For the Yes Men and their supporters, however, their ends and the perceived lack of morality of the people they target clearly justify the means the Yes Men use to criticize such people’s behavior.
“I think they push the edge of what is acceptable behavior. And I think that art has done that for a long time. From my point of view, their practice stays on this side of responsible because it targets institutions, rather than individuals,” Mileaf said. “But I am sympathetic to those who disagree. I think that one positive result of the Yes Men’s presence on campus could be to ignite conversations about just where each one of us draws that line.”
Blaine O’Neill ’11 worked with the Yes Men in Copenhagen last year during the U.N. negotiations on climate change along with Zach Postone ’11. O’Neill hopes that the issues addressed in the lecture and workshop will resonate with students. “We’re focusing on a specific project and I’m hoping this action will catalyze a longer term Yes Man-style collaboration at Swarthmore,” O’Neill said.
The Yes Men’s visit to Swarthmore has two parts: a public lecture and performance at 4:15 p.m. today, in the LPAC cinema, and a workshop tomorrow from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the Frear Ensemble Theatre. During the lecture and performance portion, the Yes Men will explain what they do and share some of their work, focusing on their most recent pieces. During the workshop, they will gather with a particular group of students to develop a concrete activist approach to an issue of concern, mountain top removal, which is the process through which the top of mountains are blown off by coal companies.
“In their actions, the Yes Men address some of the most pressing issues of our times—global warming and corporate culture to name a few. I don’t think you need to be an artist to appreciate that they are trying to bring awareness to structures of power in our society,” Mileaf said.

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