Re: <nettime> The Digital Economy

[Mark Stahlman (via RadioMail) <stahlman@radiomail.net>]

Richard:

What "Digital Economy"?  You've been drinking Reed Hundt's bathwater again.
 And, while we're at it, what WIRED magazine?  They've changed their
editorial line to encompass your position and you didn't even notice. 
WIRED is eco-friendly, Soros-inclusive and liberation-safe now.  What
"Neo-liberalism"?

As Peter Schwartz makes it very clear in his WIRED cover story, the
production and consumption of bits must become incorporated into the way
that we measure productivity and economic growth in order to pull off the
largest propaganda swindle in economic history.  The "digital economy" is,
therefore, nothing but a trick to fool us into believing that moving bits
around is productive and that consuming "information" (just more
mind-numbing" propaganda) makes us wealthier and wiser.  Yeah, let's get
that fiber-grid real soon.  Won't we all be smart and savvy then?

Meanwhile, you advocate that people accept their marginal role in the real
economy (which will always be firmly based on atoms) and swap gifts with
each other like bands of hobos living underneath the train station.  As
this process intensifies, it may just occur to you that d.i.y. and
"community-building" is just the prelude to all out gang-warfare among the
"Lost."  Disengaging from reality and livin' on the outside is going to get
mighty dangerous, buckaroo.

And, then you have the temerity to summon creativity as your shield and
protector.  What "creativity"?  Irrational, self-absorbed, masturbatory
spectacle making?  Hey, let's smoke some pot and run naked in the streets.

Beauty requires understanding -- both in the creation and in the
appreciation.  But, as the left-wing Yin to the old-WIRED's Yang, you have
abandoned understanding and embraced irrationality just as they have.

Tell us about how your Labour Party just dumped the French demand for jobs
creation.  Tell us about how nearly all of the architects of the
"Information Age" were good Hegel-quoting "social democrats" and how many
of them had degrees from LSE.  This mess we are in is the result of
social-engineering developed largely by nominal leftists, like yourself,
fer chrisakes.

The "Digital Economy" is a hoax of epic proportions.  Why are you
perpetuating it?

Mark Stahlman
New Media Associates
New York City
newmedia@mcimail.com
---
#  distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@icf.de and "info nettime" in the msg body
#  URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/  contact: nettime-owner@icf.de