Ian Dickson on Fri, 18 Apr 2003 08:54:16 +0200 (CEST) |
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Re: <nettime> Why the Web Will Win the Culture Wars for the Left |
In message <[email protected]>, Sonia Pujalte
<[email protected]> writes
> [headited @ nettime -- mod (tb)]
>
>>From: CTheory Editors <[email protected]>
>>Reply-To: CTheory Editors <[email protected]>
>>To: [email protected]
>>Subject: Article 125 - Why the Web Will Win the Culture Wars for the Left
>>Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 13:37:33 -0400
>>
>> _____________________________________________________________________
>> CTHEORY THEORY, TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE VOL 26, NOS 1-2
>> *** Visit CTHEORY Online: http://www.ctheory.net ***
>>
>> Article 125 03/04/15 Editors: Arthur and Marilouise Kroker
>> _____________________________________________________________________
>>
>>
>> Why the Web Will Win the Culture Wars for the Left:
>> Deconstructing Hyperlinks
>> ==========================================================
>>
>>
>> ~Peter Lurie~
>>
>>
>> Cultural conservatives in the United States have a lot of worries.
>> They fear that Grand Theft Auto and other video games will turn their
>> kids into crowbar-wielding criminals, they believe that Hollywood
>> will turn their daughters to floozies and sons to gigolos, and they
>> despise the constitutional barrier between church and state as an
1) To someone outside the USA it is always amusing to read articles that
seem to be underpinned by the assumption that the Net is controlled by
the US and subject to whims of its courts.
It isn't. You have defacto control of big areas because you don't do too
much. Get too tight and, like stem cell researchers, tech companies will
seek more liberal environs...
Online Gambling anyone?
2) The author seems to use conservative to mean politically right wing.
Perhaps in the context of the US it is. But taking their main point at
face value - that the Net undermines authority of text - what they are
really saying is that authoritarian approaches are in trouble.
Authoritarians come in all political shades.
3) The main criticism of deconstructionism is as follows:-
If true, then all texts are meaningless, including those describing
deconstruction, so lets get back to plot and character.... Oft
paraphrased as "Derrida can't make himself understood":-)
Summary
I'm not sure that the Net will change politics very much for the simple
reason that most people, most of the time, are not interested in
politics, and are pretty much happy to let those who are get on with it,
so long as they don't make a cock up of everything. Political movements
arise in times of strife, not plenty.
Interestingly if you do accept the logic of the essay then it does not
support the theory that the Left will win the culture wars, it implies
that soft libertarianism will. (The Left has too many authoritarian
tendencies to survive too much reasoned debate).
Cheers
--
ian dickson www.commkit.com
phone +44 (0) 1452 862637 fax +44 (0) 1452 862670
PO Box 240, Gloucester, GL3 4YE, England
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