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"the sky too is folding under you..."
The Anarchives Volume 2 Issue 14
The Anarchives Published By
The Anarchives The Anarchy Organization
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--/\-- language
/ / \ \ governance
---|--/----\--|--- and the information highway
\/ \/
/\______/\ by Jesse Hirsh
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our language struggles to keep abreast of the change we are undergoing.
confronted on all sides we see a social re-engineering, a distinct change
in societal processes.
the electronic media accelerate the devleopment of language to a hybrid
energy of unified consciousness.
as the fabric of modern governance, language traditionaly plays a rudimentary
role in the structure of a society.
with the advent of electronic media and the development of the
worldwide information organism, traditional institutions, based on
the control of language scurry to catch the wave of progress.
the information highway has become the metaphor for public debate.
it has become the symbol for the public's perception of an information
environment, and subsequently a reaction in governance.
as a 'public' metaphor, the information highway is a debateable concept.
often the issues presented are indicative of the interest presenting.
the 'popular' conceptions of the information highway are dangerously
misled. the changes that accompany such an implementation of social
organization will have a dramatic and permanent effect on the society.
dipping your head into a global synapse, submerging yourself into the
global consciousness is a transformative experience. your mind gets
that kick of electricity, generating more neurons and connections.
what is the 'order' on the net?
imagination as commodity.
with the liberation of information we approach 'total visibility'.
we all reach the metaphor of electron, zipping across the globe
winding the trail of our language into the linked minds of humanity.
we become aware of levels of access. access castes.
with television 'it doesn't matter what you think it's what you feel.'
the globs of the television decades, consolidated the homogeniety of the
mass market.
the liberation of information that accompanies a higher level of access,
the false sense of expressive freedom that is internaly projected,
we feel the change and express it through mutual experience.
an inherent dependence begins to accelerate with time as space is
rendered obsolete by increasing telepresence.
convergence and synthesis depict an implosion, the revolution is
televised and we watch with seduced apathy.
but the 'people want to be information',
they scream 'Access', we want 'Access'
and the private sector says,
"it's an Internet christmas"
the public unites into a coalition.
and the private sector co-opts all as consumers.
the matrix and brain of information,
becomes a stream of information,
enacting a change that may otherwise
go midunderstood, if not undetected.
the pay-per-bit system may change the image of the multicast center
in everyhome, to a super-duper remote control for everyone in tvland.
while other levels of access are used to conduct 'network analysis',
maintain 'usefull databases', and perform operations such as
'opticall character recognition' in maintaining a state of 'total
visibility'.
the total media environment we live in is defined differently depending
upon what information we access.
the present state of relatively loose access restrictions, coupled with
the jevunile level of maturity, presents an opportunistic emerging
electronic environment.
the language of the new mind still does not represent the emerging
realities. information overload has saturated the language, creating
a hazed vision of the present in relation to the near future.
an active approach to the reclaiming of the language, to the creation
of a new dialect of media comprehension.
the public interest hinges on the words of the governance, the language
given by the interests of public control, ready to influence the definition
of the public application of the "information highway"
the IHAC (Information Highway Advisory Council) report's language was all
encompassing, entirely inclusive, playing all bases defensively and
comprehensively.
similarly the private sector is all inclusive, and considers all to be
a part of their growing information networks. co-optation becomes the
agent of consolidation as the flagship sector of the economy will continue
to steer as it sees fit, by the guidance of the market, and the fuel
of profit.
no-one even suspects corporate governance as the white men at the
board table dictate, delegate, and organize self-regulation.
do we know the future we are impulsively sliding towards?
or has it been chosen for us, our consent manufactured,
and our tastes met with the emotional appeasement of a seductive
consumer product...
we require an active approach towards the language, engaging it and
discovering the root message of the medium itself.
"The professed concern for freedom of the press in the West is not very
persuasive in the light of the easy dismissal of even extreme violations
of the right of free expression in U.S. client states, and the actual
performance of the media in serving the powerful and privileged as an
agency of manipulation, indoctrination, and control. A 'democratic
communications policy,' in contrast, would seek to develop means of
expression and interaction that reflect the intersts and concerns of the
general population, and to encourage their self-education and their
individual and collective action. A policy conceived in tehse terms would
be a desideratum, though there are pitfalls and dangers that should not
be overlookded. But the issue is largely academic, when viewed in
isolation from the genral social scene. The prospects for a democratic
communications policy are invevitably constrained by the distribution of
effective power to determine the course and functioning of major social
instititutions. Hence the goal can be approached only as an integral part
of the further democratization of the social order. This central
component, with an indespensable contribution to make. Serious steps
towards more meaningful democracy would aim to dissolve the concentration
of decision-making power, which in our socieities resides primarily in a
state-corporate nexus. Such a conception of democracy, though so familiar
from early years that it might even merit the much-abused term
'conservative,' is remote from those that dominate public
discourse hardly a surprise, given its threat to estalished privilege.
Human beings are the only species with a history. Whether they
also have a future is not sobovious. The answer will lie in the prospects
for popular movements, with firm roots among all sectors to the margins
withing the existing social and political order: community, solidarity,
concern for a fragile environment that will have to sustain future
generations, creative work under voluntary control, independent thought,
and true democratic participation in varied aspects of life." (Noam
Chomsky, Necessary Illusions, pp. 135-6)