For every action, there is an equal opposite reaction. So in this session, it's time to stop. Get critical. Lower your expectations. Curb that enthusiasm. Raise some doubts. Be the devil's advocate. And call bullshit by its name.
// Looking for a worthy opponent!
How does the internet hamper and derail us in taking action? In what ways does it diffuse, defer, derail energy, engagement, outrage - by offering all-too convenient outlets? By allowing us to be busy and feel active - without actually taking action? Is friending Al Gore on Facebook the equivalent of taking it to the streets? How much change do two hours of social notworking engender? How much of that e-participation is really just appeasement? I'm talking tokenism. Democracy theatre. Repressive tolerance. Surrogates, sublimation, negative dialectics (don't worry, i'll talk plain English).
So I suggest, for this one session, to dust off some of those old critical theorists and take a deep, sober look in the mirror.
I'm willing to start with some input, but look foward to shared hosts, articulate adversaries, and live debate. More particularly, I'd like to form this session as a good old to-and-fro debate, so anyone interested in playing the counterpart - do contact me!
3 comments
Great point Flemming...
...I'm guilty of goofing off, time to put that to an end maybe?
Well said
And I would second that every one person being active (= effecting change) *allows* those other 99 to goof in the good feeling that others are already taking care of the mess. And the web reinforces this bystander phenomenon as it increases the reach of our attention on a global scale.
Action versus Activity
We might be rather bad at noticing the difference between action (that produces some kind of net result) and activity (that might not produce much).
For that matter, it seems like a significant percentage of the population go through life having jobs that don't really add positive value to the world. And they might not even have noticed, because they've been busy being busy, and somebody paid for it.
So does the net contribute to seeming busy or to getting results? That's an interesting discussion.
What if we discover that only 1 out of 100 of us actually is taking action, creating the value that allows the other 99 of us to goof off while looking busy.