The internet has become the site of struggle for the future of our freedoms (in the West).
Can I make an observation here, one that takes in the experience at Dartington. In my time there, I looked on in amused despair at the fact that the arts appeared to be struggling to reconcile themselves to science, with the feeling that scientific inquiry (particularly that of quantum physics) represented the edge of humanity’s engagement with matter, with fundamental reality. While not being able to challenge that directly, it seemed a fashion had developed for 1/ incorporating some scientific concepts into arts practice (sometimes along with getting into multimedia and so on), and 2/ for employing terminology reminiscent of scientific language in the discourse of the arts.
To me, this now appears to have been utterly blown away this last decade, and I hope to God nobody is still mincing around doing devised theatre concerning Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, etc.
I suppose, later, having read stuff like Daniel Bell, I had confirmed my feelings re: the above, recognising that science belongs, primarily, to the techno-economic sphere, while art remains resolutely of the cultural sphere, the bridge not being popularised notions of the behaviour of black holes or collapsing wave functions, but, absolutely, definitively, *the computer*.
I’d go as far as to say that nobody today, be they artist or whatever, can understand the world they live in without some appreciation of computers and their historical development. The twin tracks of the rise of the surveillance state and the empowerment of individuals (be they users or programmers or builders) meets at the site of the final conflict, The Internet, and we can either ignore the battle, sit on the sidelines and observe, or take part ourselves.
If the internet is decisively turned towards becoming subject to more and more corporate control, then its possibilities will be severely curtailed, and, in a very real sense, freedom will be lost. In that sense, Anonymous and the other groups truly do represent freedom fighters (and certainly are not terrorists) and their rhetoric, actions, and their subsequent hunting down and incarceration for appalling lengths of time, truly tell the story of our times. Same with Bradley Manning and Julian Assange.
I have found that the gripping nature of what is transpiring has made me forsake ‘creative activity’ and become more devoted to ‘understanding the world’. But, coming to things with the sensibility I have, I am always positioned on the right side, as my guiding light is the imagination and awareness, and whatever fosters those, or seeks to preserve them, is always where my sympathies will lie.
This will make me sound like a nihilist, but, on balance, it makes me realize and reflect upon the fact that the most important thing about creative endeavour (I hate calling it ‘the arts’), is not the art itself, but the way creative people think and feel and engage with the world.
May imagination, talent, and wit be the weapons with which this battle is won!
Random
The crusades in reverse
Re: Mali and ongoing actions in Africa, Pakistan, the Middle East. The explanatory framework I am happiest with is to consider this “The Crusades in Reverse”. Unfortunately, the same phrase has been used, wrongly, to mean a counter-crusade to restore the caliphate.
The idea of restoring the caliphate is a beautiful sentiment to place in the mouth of a useful idiot. Indeed, I heard one of the Mali jihadists uttering those words today on the BBC World Service. An actor? Western voices who recite the caliphate idea are either genuinely sucked in by it, or understand that it recirculation within Western discourse empowers the complementary narrative of the Global War on Terror.
Anyway, what I mean is that the vanguard of Western imperialism are the jihadists, who are proving the most useful idiots. Displace them into whatever territory you wish to control and they quickly depopulate, destroy and destabilize. The kicker is that the ideology they bring (which is not Islam, in the sense of their being any sort of definitive Islam, but which is 1/ genuinely barbarous with regards to fundamental human rights, and 2/ can be parlayed easily in Western discourse into standing for all muslims, thereby bolstering easily the case for ongoing interventions) is such an abomination: cultural destruction, summary execution, women treated disgustingly, that the Western powers are easily able to fend off any sort of reticence on the part of the left/traditional opponents of such adventurism.
The whole thing is a fait accompli. I despise NATO, but they win, because they have worked to a long-term plan and have successfully shut out any meaningful alternatives. My only knowledge of Mali is, in common with many in the West, I suspect, the appreciation of the Tuareg desert music of the North that brought ‘The Festival in the Desert’ and the songs of Tinariwen. These musicians are now fleeing and reappearing in other parts of Africa, having been warned they risk having their tongues cut out or being murdered if they continue to perform in Mali. These desert people are not stooges/propagandists for the West. This is genuine tyranny, and now the battle is joined by the Western powers. It’s totally depressing to me, but the posture of ‘not in my name’ and of opposing these interventions no longer seems to hold water.
Dear Lord, NATO or jihadists.
Austerity to last forever
Austerity to last until 2018. Forever.
Geographical Distribution
Here is the geographical distribution on Java, of the respondents to my questionnaire, so far.
Social Research – First questionnaire returned
A small yet proud moment for me, return of first completed questionnaire. No idea what it says…
