Re: <nettime> what if we were all right but all wrong?

[Armin Medosch <armin@easynet.co.uk>]

Dear Alex,

thanks for this. I also share your analysis. A few weeks ago I have
written a piece which I didn't post on nettime, but I do it now:

http://www.thenextlayer.org/node/1335

It goes into a slightly different direction: How can we effectively
voice opposition when the old media have reached levels of
manipulation reminding of the dark days of the cold war and the
internet has been commodified to such a degree that a small island
like nettime is a very welcome oasis again?

Yet to return to your posting, the overall feeling is that something
is changing but it does not yet have a name or gestalt. It is probably
not communism and also not commonism. To underpin this notion of a
watershed in public sentiment a little anecdote:

Last night there was a large pro-refugee demonstration in Vienna,
Austria. The police says 20.000 but their estimates are always on the
conservative side, I would say 30.000 at least. The main shopping
street, Mariahilferstrasse, was full with people from beginning to
end. It was quite heartwarming, a lot of fresh faced youngsters in
white t-shirts (because thats what the organisers told participants to
wear).

On the other hand it reminded me a bit of that anti-Iraq war demo in
London where 1.5 million went. It was this "not in my name" feeling,
something to do with post-christianity and not wanting to be guilty
of inhuman behavior, but an absence of any deeper political analysis.
Last night's demo had no slogans except for "love", "together" and
"refugees are welcome here" and the speeches also dwelled on such
simple humanistic themes. On one hand slogans probably need to be so
simple to mobilize so many, but on the other hand the absence of any
deeper political analysis means that those 30.000 will not form the
nucleus of a new political movement ... which made me a bit sad in the
end ...

best regards
Armin




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