<nettime> ICANN as the prototype for the new world government

[ronda@umcc.ais.org (Ronda Hauben)]

Following is my response to an interesting post
on the IFWP and other lists, about how the Republicans
and Democratic parties in the U.S. are out to create
the new "world government" to be modeled on the 
corrupt prototype they have created called ICANN as
the supposed new government of the Internet.

Jay Fenello <Jay@Iperdome.com> wrote:

>Today, I happened to catch Presidential Candidate
>Pat Buchanan on CSPAN.  He was giving a talk on US
>China Relations to the Commonwealth Club of California.

>At one point in the questioning, Pat described how the
>world had changed from the 80's, how the Conservative
>movement related to the Libertarian's, and the future
>of the Republican party.

Interesting.

>To paraphrase, the 80's had conservatives united=20
>against a common enemy, namely the former Soviet Union.
>Under Reagan's leadership, they won that war, and they
>reduced taxes from 70% down to 26%.  With the combined
>economic and political success of those conservative
>issues, the Republican party had lost its way.

And they leave out the end of Bell Labs and the kind of
research resulting in the transistor, UNIX, the 5ESS
Switch that required millions of lines of programming 
that Unix made possible, etc.

And they leave out that the ARPA/IPTO office was ended
and that the basic research in computer science which 
ARPA/IPTO pioneered was reduced to transition to industry
and relevant product research.

The probelm is that they get access to the mass media 
to boast of their crimes and there is no means in that
media for a voice that represent any divergence to be
heard.

That is some of why the U.S. is in the fix it is in today,
with the ICANN mess. The discussion on vital issues is
within such a narrow self congradulatory framework
that there is no chance the long term and public interest can even
be aired, never mind make any impact on how the issues are framed
or discussed or decided.


>When it came to the Libertarian question, Pat described
>differences with regards to "free trade", and the concerns
>over it resulting in a World Government.  He went on to
>predict how the traditional Party structure in the U.S.
>would change.

Strange what they call "government" :(

It is the institutionalization of those with a conflict
of interest making the decisions to benefit themselves
and their narrow set of cronyies. This is the epitamo
of the worst and most corrupt form of institions.

And this they call "government or governance" to make a mockery
of the social insitution that has developed from the 
development of human society.


>What I quickly realized is that ICANN is the incarnation
>of Pat's concern.  A single global body, determining the
>rules for content, privacy, access, and just about every
>other civil liberty.  Most ironic of all, it is being
>established on Al Gore's watch (a competing Presidential
> Candidate).

Yes, when I was at the October 7, 1998 Congressional hearing
of the subcommittee on basic research and on technology,
one of the witnesses spoke about how ICANN is the prototype
for their vision of the future government for the world.

That this was their experiment.

>Wouldn't it be interesting if ICANN became an election
>issue for the Presidential campaign ;-)

How do you see that happening? Are both parties to fight
over whether ICANN is more their vision for the future control
of the world? 

It seems to the contrary that they both realize that it 
is an embarrassment because their ideal is shown to 
be a fraud in the example that ICANN has demonstrated.

Also it is interesting that both parties seem to be fighting
over who is responsible for the development of the Internet.

And interesting principle is that anyone who is actually
responsible for the development of the Internet would have
to show very grave concern about what harm ICANN represents
to the Internet and its users. Thus those who are willing
to slap themselves on the back for both the Internet and for
ICANN show the phoniness of their claims about concern for
or contribution to the Internet's development.

It's a bit like Brecht's play the Caucausian Chalk Circle,
where the judge figures out how to tell who a child's
real mother by a test he sets out.

The Internet is facing a similar test with ICANN creation and 
development.
	

>Jay Fenello

Ronda
ronda@panix.com


             Netizens: On the History and Impact
               of Usenet and the Internet
          http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/
            in print edition ISBN 0-8186-7706-6 

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