<nettime> technolibertarians , cyberlibertarians and the state

[Korinna Patelis <cop02kp@gold.ac.uk>]

As much as one can appreciate the detais of any "war" between one group of
theorists and on other, for those of us less absorbed with themselves and
less convicted that Net-theory when practiced against itself (ie. when we
turn the criticisms on ourselves instead of looking out) is usefull , the
DIGERATI wars do not illuminate much. What of course they leave out is
policy making and the links between policies in the U.S. and Europe and
the cyberlibertarians and technorealists in question. In other words it
would be a far more productive and critical exercise to illuminate the
relationship between ideological positions fashionable-their
advocates/opponents and the GII, the e-commerce innitiative or US. funding
for digital culture. The provocative question I ask is what makes
cyberlibertarians or technorealists or whoever, always talk of the state
in relationship to freedom of speech and access. And why is it that the
importance of U.S. gov policies and OECD policies in the development of
the Net is never highlighted? And why is it that nobody is investigating
how many of the authors in question have either questioned or worked for
the organisations in question? 

In short: yes, the Media Lab receives money from the U.S. government, but
how much and why , and what does this mean? (this is just a pedantic
example).

As for how self-centered this thread is, I have noted before that for
a late comer the wars between the cyber-authentic are incomprehensible.


Korinna Patelis
Department of Media and Communications
Goldsmiths College-London-SE14 6NW
DIRECT LINE 0171-9197243

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