<nettime> Differences between tech conference for suits and Chinese Communist Party congress: very few

[Morlock Elloi <morlockelloi@gmail.com>]

Sometimes the problem in examining social phenomena is too much context 
and too little insights. It may turn out that all societies are the 
same, with apparently huge external differences being just cosmetic. 
Like with wildly different languages, the I language is the same.

Case in point: a tech security conference for suits, in a major US city, 
with registration cost of several thousand USD, the total cost per 
participant likely over $5K.

The proceedings consists mostly of sleazy ex-government consultants 
peddling their services, but the angle and hook are of interest:

- Things are bad and will get worse, unless;
- We need more of (some undefined) security;
- Word 'trust' is mentioned on average every 7-8 seconds;
- We need unified interoperable identities for everything, from 
consumers to things;
- Trust is important;
- Consumers like to share their data with businesses and the government;
- Everything must be centralized on the 'cloud';

Etc.

The ideology of central control is wrapped into presumably technical 
solutions. Speakers utter complete idiocies with confident and 
enthusiastic voice (it is inconceivable that they are not aware of 
dissociation with reality, but they appear to have mastered that 
cognitive dissonance.) The language of warfare and state security has 
smoothly migrated into 'tech' talks. Cyber warfare. Perimeters. ALL CAPS 
acronyms. Security officers.

The very few tech people present (no one pays $5K to send techie to a 
conference) are deeply confused. Sometimes they interrupt with 
inappropriate questions, but are promptly hushed (think Zizek at Chinese 
party congress.)

The audience quietly listens. They came to fulfill the ritualistic duty 
of supporting the ideology. Most of them are clueless and have 
percolated to middle/upper management via the mechanism of Imhoff's Law. 
They will go back and relay the message to their minions.

What they do will shape the world. Are you going to keep your eyes glued 
to the plastic screen most of your waking hours, or will implants do the 
trick, is not up to you to decide - you are out of the loop. The first 
world has discovered the power of technology, and proceeded to organize 
its power structures around it. The real politics and the political 
struggle have shifted to the realm that very few can comprehend. The 
rest are entertained by the irrelevant old-style politics ("elections", 
the 'people will prevail' mantras etc.) The  struggle in question does 
not appear to be between classes - it's between global entities, nation 
states, so it's really not a political struggle (two sides are required 
for it.) They all really want the same, but for themselves.

So if you lament about dismal state of the visible politics, it's 
because it's not where the action is. Where the action is you have no 
access.

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