<nettime> terrific post from slashdot ...

[Drazen Pantic <drazen@xs4all.nl>]

In a discussion about the interview David Bowie gave to
NYT, [1], Dr. Spork, posted the text with the title "Only
rebels left are old!", [2] :



Am I the only young person who notices that the only people
who express their dissent at stupid things in this world
today are old? This is a terrible sign! I seriously think
that historians will view this decade as the "era of new
conformity," sort of like the 50s without the commies.
I'm serious: Take for example the only people you see
speaking out in public against the idiotic "War on
Terror"--they are old! Even academics who find it just as
stupid as I do keep their mouths shut, even if they have
tenure.
The same goes for this "Intellectual Property" debate. I
would be shocked if there weren't many young artists who
agree with every word that Bowie says about the
subject. Still, they keep a low profile and don't rock the
boat, because we live in a climate where that gets you
severely punished. I wasn't there, but I suspect in the 60's
and 70's people faced the same dilemmas, but they said "fuck
it, I'll say what I think and see what happens." But then
again, maybe the government and the corporations have us
under a tighter clamp now than any other time in Western
history since constitutions started being written.
Sure, we all have a right to free speech, but the system has
made it so that speaking freely is severely against our
interest. This means that even though we won't go to jail,
we will get fired, spied upon, harassed, and vilified as
friends of terrorists. (How long will it take before
somebody argues that abolishing IP laws would be "caving in
to terrorism"? Surely they will find some stupid, tenuous
connection.)
Anyway, this era makes me sick. You people suck. I might as
well burn my books now to save you the trouble, because when
these old- school rebels die, nobody will raise their voice
in protest.


	   
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/09/arts/music/09PARE.html?todaysheadlines
[2] http://slashdot.org/articles/02/06/09/1354201.shtml?tid=141

#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net