Re: <nettime> Request to Nettime to be part of DISTRIBUTED CREATIVITY online forum with Eyebeam

[Peter Lunenfeld <peterl@artcenter.edu>]

On 9/25/03 7:54 PM, "ed_phillips" <ed@cronos.net> wrote:

> How would you address a mob?

You address a mob with and through media, of course. It worked for Mussolini
and Hitler, and is working (so far) for Bush, Cheney and Co. Tempting as it
may be, I'm not saying that the Bushies are fascists, just that fascism
taught lessons about communicating with mobs that are very dangerous for the
democratic ideals of informed political discourse. The right wing slant of
talk radio in America is far better suited to addressing a mob than talking
to citizens.  It's instructive that John Ashcroft, the least adroit yet most
fervent of the moralists in power, is refusing to talk to print journalists
during his whistle stop tour promoting the Patriot act. Ashcroft is only
meeting with television interviewers, hoping to be able to sound bite his
way to the next power grab (Patriots II-X, numbered like Super Bowls, I
suppose). I'm not sure his strategy is working (mostly because local news in
America would really rather run a stories on local murders than report on a
visit from the Attorney General) but it does demonstrate that this unelected
regime prefers a mob to a democratic plurality.

To tie this back to the original thread, while I'd agree that <nettime> is
not exactly a community in the open source sense, I'm pretty sure it's not a
mob either. 

Peter Lunenfeld

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