As of this moment I’ve got exactly 0 followers and i’m suddenly reminded of that airmchair philosophy question, if a tree falls in the woods and you gets the jist(high on my list of almost sex words.) So am I writing a Diary? Hmm diary seems a little bit 13 year old girl/psychological evaluation (two cultures i think could learn a lot from each other) for me, so I hope it becomes an article, but this dichotomy that exists on the internet, private thought in a very public sphere is something not considered enough. Policy makers and news outlets now listen to the “twitterverse” and “Blogosphere” now more than ever. The coalitions recent attempts at transparency and presumably public engagement with politics has given us e-petitions, If 100,00 people sign up the issue is debated in parliament. Seems reasonable, shame none of the issues are, bring back the death penalty, the Hillsborough disaster or cheaper petrol make up the top 5, all are issues immediately, and naively, in petrol prices case, gratifying but whether they have any bearing on any modern governments realistic policy making is limited. Things like The X factor, mainstream “news” outlets like fox news or the sun, as well as our unquenchable thirst for all things Clarkson have always made me wonder whether or not were worth really listening too. Now this isn’t to say that governments shouldn’t be held to account, by all means people need the right to speak up on things they’re interested in and aggrieved about. However the internet isn’t simply a place for a chat, it’s a forum, profoundly more public, politically charged and for better or worse a lot more nudity than any roman one.
The internet is obviously social but the written word only really became a social tool for all in the last 100 years and I’m not sure whether every facebook friend or youtube commenter know whether their words are intended for themselves and their p2p peers or the real universal truth of the internet, that nothing is private. So when youtube commenters chatter turns inevitably racist(as happens in pubs), incessant facebook groups based on the idea that fire is hot or similiarly obvious ideas, or discussing the differences between Mariah carey’s old shit as opposed to her later stuff when she sold out(hope sarcasm still works here), remember somewhere someone’s losing faith in their fellow man. Now this isn’t to say you can’t talk about these things if you believe in them but don’t assume just because everyone else on the COBED forum (Coping with Brain Eating Disease) it’s perfectly reasonable to assume this is a legitmate issue society needs to know about.
Social media and the free exchange of information has reversed relationship between politics and public means they increasingly listen, and seemingly have to if the enlightened uprisings in the Arab world are anything to go by, to our moral judgements online. The danger being they mediate themselves of responsibility and say they’re giving the public what they want. The recent phone hacking scandal, for example , media outlets say they’re giving the public what they want and to a large extent that’s true. The only reason it became a “scandal” is when a murder victim’s phone was hacked, which oversteps a line apparently, although i’d argue it’s the crime that overstepped the public’s moral line, hacking say for the “greater good,” the patriot act or blackmail, is fine because it help me, the taxpaying, morally grounded sun/daily telegraph reader. However, anyone can see that the greater good is usually the real public villain not an isolated crime. In fact our collective moral judgement now seems restricted to just killing and paedophilia, and in fact ignores the real damage our collective ability and willingness to judge situations and people in our society and paint vast swaithes of society with the same brush. This is usually done through simple moral shortcuts, the daily mail representing this most aptly, by condemning dole scroungers, “gansta culture,” or alternative thinkers, Julian Asange for example, and I think quenches some deep seated thirst for condemnation or indeed blood. A Psycholanalyst would say this comes from a lack of confidence, creating an “other”, a deviant reinforces our own identity and our lack of collective identity I think fuels this. This isn’t an issue of exploitation or manipulation of the “masses,” an education doesn’t stop you being played, Madoff’s pyramid scheme, Apple products, but our universal ability to judge issues we have no experience in. In fact dystopian visions of the future, 1984, brave new world, won’t come from some all powerful authoritarian rule because of the simple rule of safety in numbers, but instead from ethical ambivalence stimulated by our insatiable need for “justice,” that'll presumably make that sirloin in a gastropub in Twaddle-on-analwart, or turkey twizler in deadham go down all the better.
Now i’m no believer in modern authoritarian methods (as my next post will explain), in fact the democratisation of culture is the great promise of the internet that anyone can upload on youtube and if people like them their successful, whats a more pure expression of talent than that. I suppose what annoys me is that I don’t blame big record companies, movie studios, and news outlets, for piping us such glorious shit piles as Justin Bieber, countless superhero franchises, Big Brother, and endless hours of the frothing spunk cauldron that is modern R&B because despite the amount of choice on the internet, at our core were creatures of routine and corporations simply capitalise on that. It just seems like a relationship that breeds complacency and apathy both at the top and bottom. So thank you for your complacency and I guess I should thank myself as well, hmm this is starting to sound like an acceptance speech, because we’re all too blame, but also to congratulate as well. The world still has great people in it and there are hundreds of great innovative ideas out there, all I want is for people to take a little bit more collective responsibility and in the words of Mick Jagger take our rightful place as both sinners and saints.
