[-empyre-] responding to Nick, on Ex-communication and We are all informers

Mon Dec 22 17:31:07 EST 2014

http://www.rickperlstein.net/the-invisible-bridge

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wikileaks_Party#2013_Election

On Sun, Dec 21, 2014 at 10:24 PM, Nicholas Roberts <
niccolo.roberts at gmail.com> wrote:

> Snowden has only leaked details of what was well known since the beginning
> of the internet (actually since the telecommunications revolution in the
> 70s http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Puzzle_Palace)
>
> the military did and do fund core, basic, and advanced research and
> development of the internet
>
> the worlds first domain name registrar was started by a NSA general, under
> Clinton
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Solutions#Registry_and_registrar_business
>
> I asked Gore Vidal about this at the Sydney Town Hall 10 years ago, and
> ever the wit, Vidal said "doesnt suprise me they got in on the ground
> floor". Thing is, "they" built the ground floor
>
> Chomsky often describes the freedom created by military funding of
> academic research and development, certainly compared to corporate short
> termism. He states his own department was funded by the military at various
> stages
>
> he also talks about how he would correspond with his daughter on on these
> academic-military networks during the death squad era in South America,
> again with complete freedom
>
> the internet isn't broken, its exactly the same structure as it always was
>
> although its a shocking confirmation of what was considered "conspiracy
> theory" kind of speculation, Snowdens leaks are just details, nothing
> fundamentally new
>
> personally, I am fearful that Obama's Army, the netizen generation, that
> deify Snowden and Assange (remember him?) are being drawn into right wing
> reactionary politics via the internet libertarianism of the Snowden - Ron
> Paul philosophy. Adam Curtis calls this the Californian Ideology
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Californian_Ideology
>
> Snowden didnt even work for the NSA, he worked for a private corporation
> on contract
>
> I am concerned the Snowden/Wikileaks generation are going to become the
> invisible bridge to radical right wing politics in America and the world
>
> Rick Perlstein has written a new book called the Invisible Bridge, about
> the fall of Nixon and the rise of Reagon and how the "hippy" and "new left"
> generation converted to Thatcherism/Reagonism...
> http://www.rickperlstein.net/the-invisible-bridgei
>
> Adam Curtis also covers this era quite well, and interviews corporate and
> political psychological researchers who predicted the landslide victories.
> People who would never admit to their friends or political pollsters that
> they where going to vote conservative/Republican aligned lifestyle values
> with Reagan and Thatcher and gave them a landslide mandate
>
> Snowden and Wikileaks are the invisible bridge to the Rand Paul
> President,both Snowden and Assange are Ron Paul fanboys and the love is
> mutual
>
> Ron Paul talks a lot about ending the EPA, the IRS, the Fed and now the NSA
>
> but, thing is, in his world, those nominally democratically accountable
> public institutions will be COMPLETELY replaced with contractors or maybe
> even directly corporate powers
>
> Imperialism isnt going to go away, its just being completely privatized
>
> its not just new media that ended with Snowden, its the Hopey Changey
> Obama illusion that the netizens preposterously projected on the world
>
> now, they push an even more dangerous and preposterous delusion
>
> right wing internet libertarianism, the Californian Ideology
>
> anyone who doubts this, might look at the devastation wrecked on the
> Australian parliamentary Greens by the Wikileaks Party in the last elections
>
> personally, I am more concerned about private concentrations of power and
> resources than public concentrations of power and resources
>
> at least with public concentrations, there are real, if generally
> ineffective, leverages for change. With private concentrations there is
> only customer power. lol
>
>
> On Sat, Dec 20, 2014 at 3:25 PM, Renate Terese Ferro <rferro at cornell.edu>
> wrote:
>
>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>> Nick thank so much for sharing these links to your work on empyre.
>> Your mention of Snowden reminded me of a recent May 2014 discussion on
>> empyre featuring Geert Lovinck's e-flux essay "Hermes on the Hudson:
>> notes on new media after Snowden."
>>
>>
>> http://www.e-flux.com/journal/hermes-on-the-hudson-notes-on-media-theory-af
>> ter-snowden/
>> <http://www.e-flux.com/journal/hermes-on-the-hudson-notes-on-media-theory-after-snowden/>
>>
>> Lovink categorically believes that the Snowden affair was the
>> watershed moment when new media practices came to a grinding halt,"
>> The Snowden revelations in June 2013 mark the symbolic closure of the
>> ³new media² era. The NSA scandal has taken away the last remains of
>> cyber-naivety and lifted the ³internet issue² to the level of world
>> politics."
>>
>> You wrote:
>> >The materials that Snowden and the affiliated journalists have released
>> >starkly shows us the present state of things. Our metadata is being
>> >siphoned up in uncountable volumes...In short, we are all informers on
>> >ourselves.
>> We are dependent on these systems, on a global infrastructure that
>> none of us could build and maintain, for lack of capital, time,
>> resources, knowledge... What this suggests to me, then, is perhaps we
>> need to rethink our forms of communication....But perhaps we need to
>> consider something even more drastic, that being a rethinking of the
>> very semiotic systems we use to communicate. This is the conceit of a
>> more recent project of mine called _sylloge of codes_
>> (http://www.sylloge-of-codes.net/). ....
>>
>> You continue with, So while we continue to inform on ourselves, we can
>> also begin to think of more poetic codes, using that underutilized and
>> always-under-attack faculty, the imagination.
>>
>> I am intrigued with your invitation to use poetic code and imagination
>> to counter this new environment and can't help think also about the
>> new book co-authored by Galloway, Thacker and Warke, EX-COMMUNICATION
>> ( look back to our May
>> 2014 discussion for a more in-depth discussion of this text)  that
>> proposes to sever communication networks.  You seem to be inviting us
>> to do the opposite and am wondering if perhaps we can go back to not
>> only your work but also Ricardo's work from Week 1 to think about
>> these possibilities.  You and Claudia promised more about your
>> project.  Looking forward to hearing that as well.
>>
>>
>> Renate Ferro
>> Visiting Assistant Professor of Art,Cornell University
>> Department of Art, Tjaden Hall Office:  306
>> Ithaca, NY  14853
>> Email:   <rferro at cornell.edu <mailto:rtf9 at cornell.edu>>
>> URL:  http://www.renateferro.net <http://www.renateferro.net/>
>>       http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net
>> <http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net/>
>> Lab:  http://www.tinkerfactory.net <http://www.tinkerfactory.net/>
>>
>> Managing Co-moderator of -empyre- soft skinned space
>> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> empyre forum
>> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
>> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
>>
>
>
>
> --
>
> --
> Nicholas Roberts
> www.niccolox.org
> www.bigdatadrupal.org
>
>

-- 

-- 
Nicholas Roberts
www.niccolox.org
www.bigdatadrupal.org
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