d.garcia
2014-10-14 14:13:48 UTC
Spaces for the Language of Politics
It will be well known in these parts that European Commission is involved in
an anti-trust struggle/investigation with Google. The threat of a $6 billion
fine may hurt, just a bit, but in the end it will be little more than a
pinprick given the mountain of cash and power that Google is sitting on.
The larger question is how to move to a more generative place than the
pleasurable but futile pastime of ritualised google bashing? The more
interesting question is whether there is the political will to build new
spaces for the social media era, capable of conjuring something like a
genuine public sphere. Meaning what? Meaning a place, with critical mass,
where we participate as citizens not customers.
Its not always an easy distinction to draw- Habermass made a good job of
explaining why the distinction can be so tricky -Because private enterprise
evoke in their customers the idea that in their consumption decisions they
act in their capacity as citizens the state has to address its citizens as
consumers-
If even the most ardent advocates of a free market would draw the line at
the buying and selling of votes then a reasonable corollary would be that
public discourse - to be truly public - can not plausibly operate in spaces
that are founded on profit optimising filters and algorithms.
Even though it feels like history, just a few weeks ago in the Scottish
Referendum, British politicians suddenly awoke -briefly- from their
neo-liberal slumber, to discover that financial arguments within which they
had sought to exclusively couch the debate were not enough. They realised, with a
collective jolt, that large numbers of people had re-discovered the language
of politics and how, at key historical moments, the language of politics
trumps exclusive reliance on the language of money. The terms of the debate
were hurriedly reconfigured. The level of participation in that political
moment speaks volumes for the importance of rediscovering this language.
Developing alluring spaces to rival with the behemoths (with their
serendipity engines and happiness experiments) that are secure and ad free
will be very very hard. Particularly given the great vaults of data their
head- start has given them. Its even more difficult to imagine any crowd
funded DIY tactical solution that will make a dent. Maybe its time to admit that
sometimes we need an institutional solutions and scale. A properly resourced, public
service model, funded through general taxation. Judging by the the level of
the discussion taking place in the European Commission this is the least likely
outcome but it doesn't make the need any less urgent.
Is this a deeply unimaginative narrowly statist approach, quite out of tune
with the reality of the technological paradigm of informationalism and
networks ? Probably. But if not this then where are the natively internet
spaces Wikipedia or Linux? Move On/Avaz. hmmm What else is on the table?
slightly longer version at:
http://new-tactical-research.co.uk/blog/re-discover-language-politics/
------------------------
d a v i d g a r c i a
new-tactical-research.co.uk
It will be well known in these parts that European Commission is involved in
an anti-trust struggle/investigation with Google. The threat of a $6 billion
fine may hurt, just a bit, but in the end it will be little more than a
pinprick given the mountain of cash and power that Google is sitting on.
The larger question is how to move to a more generative place than the
pleasurable but futile pastime of ritualised google bashing? The more
interesting question is whether there is the political will to build new
spaces for the social media era, capable of conjuring something like a
genuine public sphere. Meaning what? Meaning a place, with critical mass,
where we participate as citizens not customers.
Its not always an easy distinction to draw- Habermass made a good job of
explaining why the distinction can be so tricky -Because private enterprise
evoke in their customers the idea that in their consumption decisions they
act in their capacity as citizens the state has to address its citizens as
consumers-
If even the most ardent advocates of a free market would draw the line at
the buying and selling of votes then a reasonable corollary would be that
public discourse - to be truly public - can not plausibly operate in spaces
that are founded on profit optimising filters and algorithms.
Even though it feels like history, just a few weeks ago in the Scottish
Referendum, British politicians suddenly awoke -briefly- from their
neo-liberal slumber, to discover that financial arguments within which they
had sought to exclusively couch the debate were not enough. They realised, with a
collective jolt, that large numbers of people had re-discovered the language
of politics and how, at key historical moments, the language of politics
trumps exclusive reliance on the language of money. The terms of the debate
were hurriedly reconfigured. The level of participation in that political
moment speaks volumes for the importance of rediscovering this language.
Developing alluring spaces to rival with the behemoths (with their
serendipity engines and happiness experiments) that are secure and ad free
will be very very hard. Particularly given the great vaults of data their
head- start has given them. Its even more difficult to imagine any crowd
funded DIY tactical solution that will make a dent. Maybe its time to admit that
sometimes we need an institutional solutions and scale. A properly resourced, public
service model, funded through general taxation. Judging by the the level of
the discussion taking place in the European Commission this is the least likely
outcome but it doesn't make the need any less urgent.
Is this a deeply unimaginative narrowly statist approach, quite out of tune
with the reality of the technological paradigm of informationalism and
networks ? Probably. But if not this then where are the natively internet
spaces Wikipedia or Linux? Move On/Avaz. hmmm What else is on the table?
slightly longer version at:
http://new-tactical-research.co.uk/blog/re-discover-language-politics/
------------------------
d a v i d g a r c i a
new-tactical-research.co.uk