People's Networks And Their Plagues

It looks according to David Garcia that the tactical media networks set up to connect people and liberate them from global media networks, are actually badly fucked up and riddled with 'mother blasters' terrorists around the world.

David was one of the founders of nettime.org, a catalist mailing list whose network dynamics today seem indeed rather strange, and that seems to promote much hatred mixed with a few good words.

Well, I kept away as soon as I got the bad vibe, but now people are asking how can we save the world, could tactical media networks have a place?
(see recent posts)

Although we are still struggling against tough economic realities and have long abandoned politics, I feel strongly that it is time for every individual to take action, as suggested by recent posts, independently, locally, within their means, in order to establish communication, solidarity and positive action from all sides.

All human and technical resources should be devoted to this effect.

My involvement in tactical media started when I set up my own publishing house devolved to the study of technology and economics and social interaction, our ultimate goal is to help optimize the evolution of humans on this planet.

I know, its sounds far out, but far out indeed it is.

We think the internet is wonderful medium to do that. Too bad for pornography, gambling and spam but there you go.

Somebody is bound to be grossly making money, surely at the expenses of education.

I know all too well about the media grip on the economy, and the misery and destruction
that arise from ingnorance - and simply decided to do something about it, thanks to the internet this is now possible.

Direct Representation

Brian Holmes in a post speaks about 'direct representation'.
We call our work direct representation too, and institutional systems should make room for taking direct representation into account in their administrative processes.

That could be called online democracy perhaps, but only IBM agrees with the definition.

I would like to make a couple of comments from what I have learned.

Few things are in themselves good, bad, right or wrong.

I have found extreme fundamentalism in every single region that I have visited, interwoven within communities that struggle for self preservation of their beliefs and traditions, economic stability et al

We all become extremists, when we refuse to have confrontations and to re-discuss our own beliefs and
ideas, when we refuse to share what we have, and what we dont have, with others.

I see a lot of that irrespective of religion, language. The world is full of arseholes if you ask me.

The problem is that anger grows exponentially, it catches onto anything that easily lights up.

Only wisdom can help us keep the cool, but there aint much wisdom in society. I think that is because of very bad television and too much advertising, but that is my opinion.

Anyone else feels the same?

Fragmentation also means that individuals and organisations are structured to serve their own purposes, instead they should be tuned up into bigger, universal purposes that connect individuals all to each other.

That connection of human purposes is not developed by modern industrial societies, because it is ignorance of such purposes that preserves the pursuit of much more relative and short term goals, which our economy is engineered to serve: capital gains over 5-50 years periods.

I have a problem with the word 'activism' because it sometimes it carries negative connotations

I have no problem in taking a decision, and grabbing problems and arseholes by the neck and telling them exactly what I think about them, and take action where appropriate, if worth it.

But I have seen networks of 'activists' turned against perfectly innocent and sensible people, because
anger can be easily manipulated and fired, and those global strategists know how to manipulate crowds very well, even crowds who dont drink coca cola.
They just get them to suck up whatever they want to suck up to, then use them in whatever way it suits them.

That is the nature of the beast.

I fear ignorant people who blindly swallow globalisation and capitalism, but I fear more those people who think they are not part of the globalisation process because they dont drink coke, and yet respond to manipulative dynamics which have been engineerd to leverage their own beliefs, and still serve globalisation purposes, in much more subtle way.

There are some pretty evil people who use their god given intelligence to serve solely money accumulation, at the expenses of anything else on the planet.

Some of these are highly manipulative forces, dressed up in all sorts of guises.
And closer than we think.

Many antiglobalisation people are serving the purposes of the capitalists, and they dont know it. Well, I call that first class ignorance, and yes, we all fall for it.

Like the ones who stirred up violence in the streets of Genoa, they provided the motives and justifications for the violent rage. Dont they understand that?

The same who stirring up violence in all the streets today.

Not all people who dont drink coke are intelligent, and not all people who drink coke are stupid. Can we agree on that?


"That power is the call for human equality and the
insistence on specific, concrete rights. The media activists in Ramallah right now can't do anything directly about the Israeli tanks. But they have a huge capacity to represent millions of us and
help us raise the call for rights for the Palestinians, the right to live without tanks in the street" writes Brian Holmes, a regular on Nettime.org.

Yes, but:

The people of Palestine - and all of the people of the world - who suffer, have the right to economic developments and peace and RRRESPECT, like everybody else.

The people who are blowing themselves up the streets of whatever town are motivating and justifying the tanks in the street. They dont know it, but they are playing the game of those bastards who exploit them whatever way they turn.

My point is that anyone who undertakes acts of violence is playing the game of the devil (greed, ignorance etc) dosent matter what religion and creed. Peace and justice can be guaranteed merely in the absence of chaos, and in the presence of common 'laws' that we are respect 'equally', that only can bring equality.

But too many 'activists' refuse to acknowledge the need for laws, as they associate 'law' with the fucked up system that we have been brought up with, which we all agree is completely corrupt and close to being useless. Pardon my frankness.

Doing it biblically

However, if no legal system is in place, than anyone can walk into my home and steal my backside, and I have nowhere to turn to say 'you cant do that'. I would have to stay put and take it.

The absence of a legal system would leave the law of the strongest, which in this very particular moment in history is not necessarily the 'wisest' or 'more just', is the greediest,
the one handled by the biggest
arseholes.

But there are other laws. Natural laws, cosmic laws, ethical laws, physical laws and all sorts of other principles that can show us how there can be harmony in the universe, and how we can be a part of that too.

That brings me onto religion - oh boy I dont like myself when I become biblical.

Isn't that what Islam and Israel are all about?

I am positive that if the tactical media networks can incorporate some room for englightement, it will be much easier to make them work for the ultimate goal, the advancement of society so that individual can pursue happiness and peace on earth.

Of course among the tactical media networks, and anywhere else, there are a lot of people who do not