Re: [-empyre-] Self-programmable media activism; just cheap talk?

[marc <sparkle@c-level.cc>]

On Nov 29, 2005, at 1:24 PM, Alex Killough wrote:

> To me this is where the virtual community is a relevant alternative, 
> for the following reasons:
> I can get a lot more people to my website than I can to Dolores Park 
> (protest central for SF).
> I don't need some kind of song and dance routine by a politically 
> inclined performer to attract an audience.

Look, 62- 68's outcome is a wash, and I don't think that this is the 
most relevent moment for Robby's conversation is we only use the US as 
a context (social movements outside of US were often successfull in 
gaining real social gains after that period. For me 68 in America 
represents the rise of a radical individualism that appears first as 
"radical chic". I would look more towards kick-ass unions of the 
progressive era from the 1890's until the late 1930's.) But that said, 
you don't force change by blogging. Power changes when confronted by 
resistance... meaning (to quote Mario Savio) that the wheels of the 
machine can no longer turn.

While I agree with what you see as the discursive qualities of the 
internet (and face to face meetings with folks of like minds or focus) 
I don't think calling something an "alternative" is productive. I would 
see these discursive sites as adjuncts... things that help and are 
constitutive of a wider movement.

And agreed, protest cultural forms can be a drag. But then again, so is 
many comercials on TV. What should be at stake in a Dolores Park 
gathering and then march is a manifestation, and sometimes a stopping 
the wheels... as in the real world shut down of downtown sf at the 
start of the most recent war. Money is lost. Face-to-face cross 
ideological dialogue occurs.
> You may have noticed that meat-space is pretty much entirely 
> commodified, including the protest space, which even in its most 
> 'radical' requires the purchase, somewhere along the way, of black 
> hoodies (or equivalent 'protester-chic' garb), bricks, and liquor 
> bottles. And probably escape mechanisms, food,
> places to hide, etc.

Yeah, meat space is almost entirely commodified. Big deal. As previous 
threads of this conversations were getting at... some items and 
concept's commodifications ARE BENEFICIAL. Some of it is neither good 
nor bad. Yes, some protest is probably psychological escape, but then 
again, so is some web activity.