"But our emphasis is not on the tech tools. It’s all about the human beings and the political strategy. The aim is to build something that is outside the attention economy, that doesn’t need to be in the Internet limelight right this second to have a major impact down the road." Astra Taylor
"The reduction, in part, enables the phenomenologist to go back to the the things themselves, meaning back to the ways that the things are actually given in experience."
Christorpher Lasch, early 90s
http://brandon.multics.org/library/Christopher%20Lasch/lasch1994revolt.html
"If people imitate each other’s desires, they may wind up desiring the very same things; and if they desire the same things, they may easily become rivals, as they reach for the same objects. Girard usually distinguishes ‘imitation’ from ‘mimesis’. The former is usually understood as the positive aspect of reproducing someone else’s behavior, whereas the latter usually implies the negative aspect of rivalry. It should also be mentioned that because the former usually is understood to refer to mimicry, Girard proposes the latter term to refer to the deeper, instinctive response that humans have to each other." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://www.iep.utm.edu/girard/
"The time came when technique was identified with the visual realm, and technically produced visual images gave people undeniable evidence. At the same time, images gave a feeling of unlimited power. This is when language began to be thought of as just 'talk,' because it did not give the same kind of clear certainty and indisputable results that visualization and technique did." Jacques Ellul
http://www.religion-online.org/showbook.asp?title=499"
Well, you may surmise that other themes are mixed in here with Michael Young's "meritocracy." That's why I'm putting this little note in here at the top. One day it occurred to me that a certain cynicism surfacing in regard to technology obsession might indeed be real good evidence it's time to return to the frames of Christopher Lasch and René Girard (actually, I only put Girard inspired ideas aside for short spells). When Lasch goes into his description of educational advantages enjoyed by children of "symbolic analysts" in the segment linked below...if it doesn't sound extraordinary by today's standards, remember he wrote this pretty far back there. Was everything he was discussing then actually the prelude to the "digital divide" of toaday? This site could have started out with other issues too. Visual culture replacing verbal, for example. But, alas, it begins as it begins. The words following are Lasch's. They're from the second chapter of his "Revolt of the Elites..."
http://brandon.multics.org/library/Christopher%20Lasch/lasch1994revolt.html
http://brandon.multics.org/library/Christopher%20Lasch/lasch1994revolt.html
"How should this new social elite be described? Their investment in education and information, as opposed to property, distinguishes them from the rich bourgeoisie, the ascendancy of which characterized an earlier stage of capitalism, and from the old proprietary class—the middle class, in the strict sense of the term—that once made up the bulk of the population. These groups constitute a 'new class' only in the sense that their livelihood rests not so much on the ownership of property as on the manipulation of information and professional expertise. They embrace too wide a variety of occupations—brokers, bankers, real-estate promoters and developers, engineers, consultants of all kinds, systems analysts, scientists, doctors, publicists, publishers, editors, advertising executives, art directors, moviemakers, entertainers, journalists, television producers and directors, artists, writers, university professors—to be described as a 'new class' or a 'new ruling class.' Furthermore, they lack a common political outlook...
"Reich's portrait of the 'symbolic analysts' is extravagantly flattering. In his eyes, they represent the best and brightest in American life. Educated at 'elite private schools' and 'high-quality suburban public schools, where they are tracked through advanced courses,' they enjoy every advantage their doting parents can provide...
"Their teachers and professors are attentive to their academic needs. They have access to state-of-the-art science laboratories, interactive computers and video systems in the classroom, language laboratories, and high-tech school libraries. Their classes are relatively small; their peers are intellectually stimulating. Their parents take them to museums and cultural events, expose them to foreign travel, and give them music lessons. At home are educational books, educational toys, educational videotapes, microscopes, telescopes, and personal computers replete with the latest educational software..."
http://brandon.multics.org/library/Christopher%20Lasch/lasch1994revolt.htmld
distracted by our own coolness, meanwhile...
"However, the drama that is under way is none other than the shifting fault-lines of the contemporary imperial system in which we live and the relative power-shift in Eurasia in which powers like China, Russia and India, at least economically, are beginning to persuade people that they represent the new, rising powers, whereas the west represents the declining ones." Vassilis K. Fouskas
March 28, 2014
http://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/vassilis-k-fouskas/ukraine-and-eurasias-imperial-faultlines
So, there is the set of folks who deem themselves as informed because they possess the technology that informs. This stuff, though, has become affordable to billions, and among these billions we see waves of imitation and mimesis (in Girard's senses of the words) in terms of interpreting events...waves that are thought to be fast moving. But we see, for instance regarding recognizing "blowback," that the waves of interpretation still lag in terms of apprehending what's actually going on out there. Somehow, therefore, we have to return to running theories of what's going on by our fellow/sister humans in person...as a practice of testing their coherence. That means we question standard electronic sources [the equivalent in the old days were usually syndicated writers of hard copy], and run interpretations by real living and breathing humans more often. For instance, if NPR is promulgating that Russia going into Crimea had no antecedent...then perhaps we could discuss with a friend the alternate view Oliver Stone is putting up on his facebook page. It seems "reliable" liberal sources of today [just like the old information-handling-groups, but having more crucial bearing in a more critical time] can get puffed up and lazy...and come to believe that whatever interpretation destiny plops in front of them...is the right one cause that's their destiny!
When we're relying on coherence rather than the barrage, then we have to hold on to tacit things in our own memories as opposed to having our computer hold on to links to articles the contents of which we figuratively put under piles of papers (IOW tantamount to our doing this in the past...facts no longer available to us). For instance, if 20 some people die during protests in Venezuela and hawks begin screaming Venezuela needs a regime change...should we forget in our own minds how many inhabitants in Gaza died in just 50 days? No, we have to keep in our own mind's file a rough idea of how many.
In fact, the numbers may be on our side; and the one thing computers are good for (if they don't fix our "piles" of stuff to read) is that layout can deal with numbers. Ergo, some of the stuff below...
Hudson
http://michael-hudson.com/
Good discussion via the Piketty May 1 show..."Listen" icon http://radioopensource.org/
Jack Rasmus http://prn.fm/category/archives/alternative-visions/#axzz26ySyu8Fl
