Re: <nettime> Where did the Internet revolution go?

["nettime's_digestive_system" <nettime-l@bbs.thing.net>]

1...... Chris Abraham <chris@tmn.com>
2...... From: Nmherman@aol.com
3...... From: Hye-Young  Chung <hc379@columbia.edu>



Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2000 11:18:36 -0500
From: Chris Abraham <chris@tmn.com>
To: owner-nettime-l@bbs.thing.net
Subject: Re: <nettime> Where did the Internet revolution go?

You must be the king of subtle humour as I believe you belie your point by
stating the obvious and then sharing all the obious changes that have
effected your life and then being blase about it.

owner-nettime-l@bbs.thing.net wrote on 1/29/00 2:03 pm:

>Where did the Internet
>revolution go?


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From: Nmherman@aol.com
Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2000 11:34:11 EST
Subject: Re: <nettime> Where did the Internet revolution go?
To: toaster@pvv.ntnu.no, nettime-l@bbs.thing.net

In a message dated 1/31/2000 10:17:14 AM Central Standard Time,
toaster@pvv.ntnu.no writes:

> I can only see that the Internet is yet an arena where the powers that be
>  -- both political and economical -- have fortified their current
>  positions, making it even harder to bring about political and economic
>  change.

This is absolutely correct, despite the defensive victory of etoy over its
clumsy and incompetent persecutors. What is the net effect of the internet,
digitzation, and globalization on the balance of power between corporations
and people? Vastly in favor of the corporations by any standard, be it
political, economic, cultural, or artistic (observe the massive amount of
corporate media-content being delivered via conglomerates like TWAOL).

I don't think Thomas is whining at all; he's being refreshingly honest and
realistic. Too much internet yarn-spinning is either technophiliac or
technophobiac; when the reality is that computer's main effect on human
life so far has been to make the Western Bloc, having won its cold war,
more efficient in virtually all its functions. No revolution there, unless
you are a devotee of Fukuyama and Toffler.

Max Herman
The Genius 2000 Network
www.geocities.com/~genius-2000

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Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2000 00:53:45 -0500 (EST)
From: Hye-Young  Chung <hc379@columbia.edu>
To: nettime-l@bbs.thing.net
Subject: Re: <nettime> Where did the Internet revolution go?

I agree that the internet is a way in which consumers are yet again opened
to a broader scope of products (since the TV) so that we can buy more spend
more eat more commodities developed by large corporations and governments,
but, call me an optimist, it does have its potential as Ronda said. If you
go back to Marx's purist statements, discluding his latter works, where he
wants almost militant action, he says that the system will suck itself dry.
Large corporate capitalists will provide the tools - possibly the internet
- so that global communication can occur. So, the battle mainly lies in
trying to get these corporations to disperse the tools even further than
the USA or Western Europe. This could turn us all into numbminded Glade
plug-ins, but, again as an optimist, I think that some will listen.




On Mon, 31 Jan 2000 toaster@pvv.ntnu.no wrote:

> revolution n. _1_ the forcible over-throw of a government or social
> order, in favor of a new system. _2_ any fundamental change or reversal
> of conditions.
>   -- [The Concise Oxford Dictionary, New Edition]
>
>
> Ronda Hauben <ronda@umcc.ais.org> wrote:
> >It's hard to know what you are complaining about.
>
> Complaining was the style, the message was:
>


<....>



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