On the Frontiers of Globalisation: Zero de Conduit (2003)

21/10/22 Globalisation:Zero de Conduit 1

On the frontiers of Globalisation: Zero de Conduit

ByPeter E. FranksExecutive Dean: Faculty of Management Sciences and LawUniversity of the North


ChatWorld:A Virtual world of Substitution – Simulation grounded in real people ?

By Peter E. FranksExecutive Dean: Faculty of Management Sciences and LawUniversity of the North


IntroductionAn investigation of the textures of globalisation on the frontiers of modernity: with a view to at least a contribution to an etiquette for wannabe cultural imperialists.

King Kong was an image of liberation within an occupied territory in South Africa circa 1950. A tragic hero rising to his time.

We all live in an occupied territories of some sort, whether virtual and/or real.


To all the particularities out there, whether they be nodal, collective, individuated or whatever, in their tragic heroic grappling with the globalising of the world.To this fragile moment at the beginning of this Third Millenium.

DEDICATION


Topics of Discussion Corruption in all its modalities Fostering Democracy as an alibi Criterion of membership to the one world, global world and Disneyworld

New lamps for old, the virtual for the real, memes for all.


Globalisation Is nothing more than a continuation of that Imperialism so well understood by Rhodes with his scholarships.

Educate the future leaders of the world together and they will have more in common with each other than their subjects at home.

Globalisation is merely the mobilisation of elites worldwide – a global network of elites, perhaps necessitating the development of a worldwide enemy………the global war on terror!


Assumptions of Globalism Ever expanding social cohesion is possible and desireable.

The threat to cultures and environments is a price we have to pay. Yes, let us find ways to minimise this. – Museums of the past?

“Work in progress” ……………….


Return to Babel?Once before humankind attempted to build a stairway to paradiseG-d struck the tower and dispersed the people /forced diversity through tongues


BABEL

BABEL

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9/11 P m

O oS dT eM rO nDE Babel?RN


The Tower of BabEl Now the whole earth had one language and few words. And as men migrated

from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth."

And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech."

So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the earth. - Genesis 11.


Sting's "If I Ever Lose My Faith In You":You could say I lost my faith in science

and progress. You could say I lost my belief in the holy

church. You could say I lost my sense of

direction.I never saw no miracle of science

That didn't go from from a blessing to a curse.

I never saw no military solutionThat didn't always end up with something

worse...


Hermeneutics of Suspicion

“Jacques Derrida and a host of "postmodern deconstructionists" who have wed Marxist ideas to existentialist despair. Ironic, isn't it? That architects of modernity (Marx, Freud, James, Dewey, et. al.) would be regarded as offering solutions to the problems they helped to create is a sign of our bankruptcy. Where does our culture go for answers? Derrida, Lyotard and other deconstructionists have argued that we are all involved in "language games," and that Nietszche was correct in his assertion that all human intercourse is part of the "will to power." Language, we are told, is an instrument of cleverly disguised oppression, and this has been most fully exploited by academics interested in advancing various forms of Marxist ideology (Liberation Theology, feminism, etc.). Words do not really mean anything in themselves, but in reading between the lines we can at least anticipate the next move of our opponent. Called the "hermeneutic of suspicion," deconstructionism maintains that there are no norms for meaning and human language.


The Loss of a Centre More than anything else, the Enlightenment was an adolescent's

rebellion against his parents' religion. Colin Gunton observes, "The distinctive shape of modernity's disengagement from the world is derived from its rebellion against Christian theology. In that sense, there is something new under the sun. Modern disengagement is disengagement from the God of Christendom.“

This is why Vaclav Havel warned that the foundation of the West is exactly the same as that of the East, and our future is their present: "I believe that with the loss of God, man has lost a kind of absolute and universal system of coordinates, to which he could always relate everything, chiefly himself. His world and his personality gradually began to break up into separate, incoherent fragments corresponding to different, relative, coordinates.“

This makes the breakdown in a coherent theological system within evangelical Christianity (the part of Christendom that at least claims to still be clinging to the historic faith) all the more serious.


Consuming Fire The new thing in Nietzsche was the man of "azure

isolation," six thousand feet above time and man; the man to whom a fellow-creature drinking at the same well is quite dreadful and insufferable; the man who is utterly inaccessible to others, having no friends and despising women; the man who is at home only with eagles and strong winds;...the man beyond good and evil, who can only exist as a consuming fire.

Stanley Hauerwas, et. al., ed.

Theology Without Foundations: 1994, p. 13.


Globalisation means many different things for different people

Among the possible definitions we might include: 1. Intensification of economic, political, social, and cultural

relations across borders;2. The historical period (or historical epoch) launched since the

end of the cold war;3. The transformation of the world economy epitomized by the anarchy

(literally defined) of the financial markets;4. The triumph of the us values, through the combined agenda of

neoliberalism in economics and political democracy;5. An ideology and an orthodoxy about the logical and inevitable

culmination of the powerful tendencies of the market at work;6. A technological revolution, with social implications;7. The inability of nation-states to cope with global problems that

require global solutions, such as demography, ecology, human rights, and nuclear proliferation (see Cox 1996, 23; Reich and Higgott 1998).Arie M. Kacowicz(1998)


The New Deal Goes GlobalAmerica basking in its success with its successive New Deals since the friendly totalitarianism of FDR and their European Partners fresh from their successes with the EU now social engineering on a global scale:

New communications medium Television – Multi-media

New visionReal Corporate Progress – Multinational Hyperreality

New EconomyConsumerism – hyperconsumerism

New WarConventional War – Strategic Information War


Ambiguous reality\\\\\\\////////

Simulation?Subject: Re: The nature of virtual realityFrom: Gordon Rae ([email protected])Date: 28 Jul 2000 - 14:06 BST

Compare the term "Virtual Reality" with "False Teeth". False teeth are designed to replace real teeth, and their name draws attention to the fact that they both are, and are not, teeth.


U.S. version of globalisation Successive administrations have pressed home five main points in their drive for a form of globalization modeled after our own economy, political system, and culture:

1. Advocacy of free-enterprise, market capitalism; free trade; free and unrestricted movement of capital; and privatization of economic activity throughout the world.

2. Strong support for global corporations and hostility toward governmental regulation of them.

3. Extension to all countries of a "rule of law" patterned to the extent possible after the U.S. legal system.

4. Encouragement of human rights in all countries. 5. Encouragement of democracy in all countries.

Bill Christison (Former political analyst for the CIA) (2002) The Disastrous Foreign Policies of the United States: Part 2: The U.S. Drive for Corporate Globalization: A Partial Primer on Why So Many Hate It. CounterPunch.com, May 28. May 28,


Culture’s Dissidents

As we scrutinized our reasons for taking this position, they related less to the merits of the values themselves than to weaknesses in the conception of culture that underlies the logic of cultural relativism. First, cultures are not unified. To say that "a culture" does not "agree" with us on a position apparently means that those who hold the microphones do not agree, but experience tells us there are always some, often many, dissidents within the culture who do believe in those rights

Negotiating Culture and Human Rights: Beyond Universalism and Relativism," edited by Lynda S. Bell, Ilan Peleg and Andrew J. Nathan. (2001)The discussion grew from Nathan’s 1997 NEH summer seminar at Columbia University on "The Asian Values Debate: Human Rights and the Study of Culture."


Imagine the world’s population as a village of 100 people : 57 would be Asian, 21 European, 14 would be from the western

hemisphere (North and South America), 8 would be African. 51 would be female, 49 male. 70 would be non-Christian and 30 would be Christian. 50% of the world’s wealth would be in the hands of 6 people,

all of whom are U.S. citizens. 80 people would live in substandard housing. 70 people would be unable to read. 1 person would be near death and 1 would be near birth. Less than 1 person would have a college degree. 50 would suffer from malnutrition. Not one person would own a computer.

David K. Scott, Chancellor University of Massachusetts An Integrative World View , March 24, 2001


Cyberspace is a new form of perspective.Cyberspace “…does not coincide with the audio-visual perspective which we already know. It is a fully new perspective, free of any previous reference: it is a tactile perspective. To see at a distance, to hear at a distance: that was the essence of the audio-visual perspective of old. But to reach at a distance, to feel at a distance, that amounts to shifting the perspective towards a domain it did not yet encompass: that of contact, of contact-at-a-distance: tele-contact. Paul Virilio (1995)

Speed and Information: Cyberspace Alarm!

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Democracy “We are witnessing a long and tedious process in which the state

and the state system are being transformed by the forces of globalization and regionalization but not necessarily replaced by them.”

“it is becoming evident that state sovereignty has been eroded by the action of nonstate actors, the shaping of regional frameworks with supranational elements, and the dynamics of globalization.”

“Finally, there is a normative reason why we should care about the fate of the nation-state in relation to regionalization and globalization. Although globalization has been ideologically linked to the spread of democratization, the forces of globalization (and to a lesser extent those of regionalization as well) have been anything but democratic, responding mainly to the amorphous and economic (Darwinist?) logic of the global market. Thus, to preserve democracy we need democratic regimes, not embedded in transnational economic boards or supranational and unelected bureaucracies but within nation-states and accountable to their respective populations.”Arie M. Kacowicz(1998)


Globalization: the triumph of modernization theory

Globalization represents the universalizing of American values (if not Anglo–Saxon ones), predicated on a normative, indeed moral foundation. In the modernization literature, the convergence is towards liberal democracy and modernity defined as industrialized economic development—one that involves the characteristic features of a limited state apparatus.40 But it is a specific form of liberal democracy—it is John Locke’s and not Jean–Jacques Rousseau’s variant. And it is, comparably, a particular form of economic development—it is the Anglo–Saxon classicism of Adam Smith rather than the ‘Continentalism’ of Friedrich List.41 In tandem, the values professed by the traditional modernization theory of comparative politics bears a startling resemblance to one popular stream of contemporary ‘globalization theory.’

While Hamid Mowlana may be correct in suggesting that “globalization has brought more surface homogenization than fundamental change,”Simon Reich 1998

http://www.ciaonet.org/wps/rhs01/#note41

http://www.ciaonet.org/contrib.html#res

http://www.ciaonet.org/wps/sites/klg.html


Towards opinion democracy

“The dictatorship of speed at the limit will increasingly clash with representative democracy. When some essayists address us in terms of "cyber-democracy", of virtual democracy; when others state that "opinion democracy" is going to replace "political parties democracy", one cannot fail to see anything but this loss of orientation in matters political,… The advent of the age of viewer-counts and opinion polls reigning supreme will necessarily be advanced by this type of technology.”

Paul Virilio (1995)Speed and Information: Cyberspace Alarm!


“Globalization" is a fake

“The very word "globalization" is a fake. There is no such thing as globalization, there is only virtualization. What is being effectively globalized by instantaneity is time. Everything now happens within the perspective of real time: henceforth we are deemed to live in a "one-time-system"1. For the first time, history is going to unfold within a one-time-system: global time. Up to now, history has taken place within local times, local frames, regions and nations. But now, in a certain way, globalization and virtualization are inaugurating a global time that prefigures a new form of tyranny. If history is so rich, it is because it was local, it was thanks to the existence of spatially bounded times which overrode something that up to now occurred only in astronomy: universal time. But in the very near future, our history will happen in universal time, itself the outcome of instantaneity - and there only.” Paul Virilio (1995)


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Narco-Capitalism of the Wired World

“The suggestive power of virtual technologies is without parallel. Next to the illicit drugs-based narco-capitalism which is currently destabilizing the world economy, a computer-communication narco-economy is building up fast. The question may even be raised whether the developed countries are not pushing ahead with virtual technologies in order to turn the tables on the under-developed countries, which are, in Latin America especially, living off, or rather barely scraping by, the production of illicit chemical drugs. When one observes how much research effort in advanced technologies has been channeled into the field of amusement (viz. video-games, real virtuality goggles, etc.), should this instantaneous subjugating potential - and it has been applied successfully in history before - which is being unleashed on the populations by these new techniques remain concealed?

Something is hovering over our heads which looks like a "cybercult". We have to acknowledge that the new communication technologies will only further democracy if, and only if, we oppose from the beginning the caricature of global society being hatched for us by big multinational corporations throwing themselves at a breakneck pace on the information superhighways. “Paul Virilio (1995)


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Beyond relativism?“In the end, most of our essays suggest that it is contradictory to argue for a value as being valid in any other way than universally. A state of affairs alleged to be relativistically right is only a preference, not a value. One is reminded of Kant’s warning that moral philosophy is not anthropology. If human rights are matters of value, then the issue to debate is whether they are right or wrong, not how widely they are held.”

Negotiating Culture and Human Rights: Beyond Universalism and Relativism," edited by Lynda S. Bell, Ilan Peleg and Andrew J. Nathan (2001). The discussion grew from Nathan’s 1997 NEH summer seminar at Columbia University on "The Asian Values Debate: Human Rights and the Study of Culture."


Substitution not simulation

“I disagree with my friend Baudrillard on the subject of simulation. To the word simulation, I prefer the one substitution. This is a real glass, this is no simulation. When I hold a virtual glass with a data glove, this is no simulation, but substitution. Here lies the big difference between Baudrillard and myself: I don't believe in simulationism, I believe that the word is already old-fashioned. As I see it, new technologies are substituting a virtual reality for an actual reality. And this is more than a phase: it's a definite change. We are entering a world where there won't be one but two realities, just like we have two eyes or hear bass and treble tones, just like we now have stereoscopy and stereophony: there will be two realities: the actual, and the virtual. Thus there is no simulation, but substitution. Reality has become symmetrical. The splitting of reality in two parts is a considerable event which goes far beyond simulation.”Cyberwar, God And Television: Interview with Paul VirilioLouise Wilson for CTHEORY, 21 October 1994

http://www.wmin.ac.uk/media/richard/about_RB.html


A-individual “1993 meeting of Asian leaders in Bangkok. The purpose of the meeting was to formulate an Asian stance on human rights which would be represented at the upcoming World Conference on Human Rights. According to one report, "What surprised many observers...was the bold opposition to universal human rights...made on the grounds that human rights as such do not accord with 'Asian values.‘ Asian intellectuals justify this opposition on the grounds that Western notions of human rights are founded on the idea of personal autonomy, which Asian culture does not hold as a fundamental virtue, if it embraces autonomy as a virtue at all.”

Amatai Etzioni (1997), p.179


Trends in AfrocentrismThe Africanist discourse on human rights reflects three major trends.

The first trend is close to the dominant universalist approach of the West. Advocates of this trend admit the relevance of the African notion of human rights while admitting the universality of a basic nucleus of human rights. Quashigah, for example, argues that human rights principles which go back to social facts that are specific to certain societies cannot be called universal; nonetheless, he recognizes that certain basic needs are universal and applicable to any person regardless of geographical, historical and cultural considerations.

The second trend opposes the universalist theory because it aims to defy the Western views on state-individual relations that characterise human rights. This approach is based on the argument that the Western conception of human rights is different from the African idea of human rights, as the latter takes the community as the basis of society, while for the West the individual is more basic.

The third trend specifies that pre-colonial Africa experienced human rights that were compatible with the socio-economic and political context of that era. According to Keba M'Baye (1987), these rights must be examined with the context of those African societies in mind; the notion of human rights in that situation was essentially communal, encouraging the protection of the human rights, solidarity and mutual respect. Moha Ennaji, University of Fès, Morocco


Cultural Relativism and Human RightsConclusion Historical and cultural peculiarities have an impact on the conception of universal human rights. Cultural relativism must serve to secure local self determination and not be utilized as an excuse for arbitrary rule and oppression. Cultural differences should not be a pretext for a violation of basic human rights .

The construction and definition of the norms of human rights is an ever-lasting and dynamic process. The arguments for cultural relativism are plausible such that they stress the importance of the need for cross-cultural understanding and tolerance. By making comparison between diverse cultural traditions, human rights may be developed and the claim to their universality strengthened in a culturally diverse world.The principles of human rights should also apply at the international level to allow developing countries to participate in decision-making and in resolving international conflicts. The African populations' needs for education, housing, health care, nutrition and employment must be taken into account in the cultural relativism of human rights. Modern human rights cannot be protected if these basic needs remain unsatisfied Moha Ennaji, University of Fès, Morocco


A more balanced view Thus far, we can identify three levels of arguments for the Africanist approach to the cultural relativism of human rights. First, there is the debate that human rights may have foundations in the African historical experience. The extreme Africanist discourse, which claims that the communitarian African concept of human rights is in contrast with the concept and traditions of the West, has its own weakness. The idea of the absolute cultural relativism of human rights is the outcome of a misunderstanding caused by cultural nationalism. Most of the communitarian norms and values which have been attributed to African societies are also often applicable to Asia and Europe in the pre-industrial era.

Moha Ennaji, University of Fès, Morocco


Corruption: In all its Modalities

Besides the obvious there is the more subtle and textured corruption of the social fabric itself.Characterised by Thinking and reasoning grounded in reification, mythology and slogans

Breakdown of social fabric disappearance of moral and ethical frameworks Lack of a real political base to the major party – a product of history spin doctored into a virtual party.

Generalised opportunism in the interpretation of legislative intentions.


WIRED - The medium is the message“Moreover, though it sometimes drowns out textual meaning, Wired's visual cacophony reverberates with meanings of its own. In fact, its design embodies its editorial ideology, prepping what Marshall McLuhan called Typographic Man for his millennial metamorphosis into Homo Cyber, reconciling 21st century cybercapitalism and countercultural rebellion. Not for nothing is McLuhan listed as "Patron Saint" on the magazine's masthead: in Wired, the medium is the message.

At the same time, Wired inverts McLuhan's theory of "rear- view mirrorism," which states that the content of each new medium is the medium it superseded (early movies emulated stage plays, for example). By contrast, Wired's "cyborgasmic" graphics are a computer simulation of things to come; Plunkett and Kuhr wanted the magazine to look "as though it had literally landed at your feet as a messenger from the future." “WIRED UNPLUGGED by Mark Dery, 1995?


WIRED - The medium is the message (Continued)

Mark Dery concludes:

“Enacting the world-view of a postliterate, digitally disembodied culture, Wired begs the obvious, on every page: What are all these the words doing here, like some troublesome corpus delicti that can't be disposed of? As a millennial artifact, Wired impels us, unavoidably, toward questions of critical significance: Can literary content be disembodied and reincarnated in a post-linguistic, purely graphical form? More profoundly, is the centered, bounded self, which McLuhan argues was a product of print culture, fated to liquefy into a polymorphous perversity like the T-1000? Reading Wired, we feel ourselves beginning to morph.”WIRED UNPLUGGED by Mark Dery, 1995?


"Is the media still the message?" De Kerkhove, 1995

So today because of media, because of the fluidity, flexibility and changing nature of media, but with some consistency, language relationship to object is reversing.

And so there is a history of relationship between language and object:in the beginning - in the beginning was the word - Es wurde Licht - let there be light, and there was light. Language created light. And then Adam, (we are still in the Adamic time); Adam’s job [was] to name creatures.

but then in the new orality, now in the electronic orality it is electronic, it is nomadic, it is instant, it is global and it is turning language into a tool, more than it ever was. Changing the structure of language from past orientation to present. Cinema has helped a great deal. Cinema makes narrative present by definition, but in any case, now the relationship of recording the objects reality is not related to the past of the object but to the present of the object and very quickly to the future of the object. So we are now looking at a situation where our language is recovering its very earliest biblical role of pure creation.


“No more message, no more medium?"

De Kerkhove, 1995 To the psychological end of this issue; The ultimate goal: Where

is technology going? Its ultimate goal is to bridge mind and matter in realtime. That is, to have no interface, no medium. (The medium is the message - no more message no more medium.)

But the most important thing I think of what is happening to mind is that orality, the oral condition of language and literacy, the written condition of language are meeting on-line as thought. Thought was created in mind by writing. Until than speech was alone with very little thinking. There was no need for it. Thinking becomes a possibility. Personal control of information-processing comes with writing. Now collective and personal information-processing as thought combine literacy and orality on the net or on line. That's a very big thing what's going on and its out of our control. Most of it is selforganizing - not all of it but most of it is selforganizing.


Writing begins individualism

“The other thing about writing which is important: It makes all of us individuals. Before that, we are a single tribe. The single tribe's identity projects a new mirror, a mirror of personality, of consciousness and turns us into individual people. This power of autonomy is an extremely complex issue, and today we may have to deal with it completely anew.” DERRICK DE KERKHOVE (1995)

Director McLuhan ProgramUniversity of Toronto


“Metaphorical value” “ There is a problem with the selforganizing power of technology in that - it is

literal - its end is efficiency and its very close to the functionality of language. But there are two levels or aspects to language: One is literal (I mean what I say), and one is metaphorical (I mean more than what I say). The metaphorical value of language is just as important, in the fact it is more important than the literal, because it is the creative end of language. The literal end of language is the functional one.Media themselves are metaphors. All media are metaphors of the body. The functional, technical ends of media are metaphors of functional, technical needs of the body. Only artists who turn around the technology, are making the metaphorical value of technology visible, perceptible. And the hands giving back to the technology itself its full linguistic literal and metaphorical content. The artists perceive the metaphorical end of technology and it is presenting that metaphorical end for people to perceive beyond the functional.“

“Only artists who turn around the technology, are making the metaphorical value of technology visible, perceptible. And the hands giving back to the technology itself its full linguistic literal and metaphorical content. The artists perceive the metaphorical end of technology and it is presenting that metaphorical end for people to perceive beyond the functional.”“The metaphorical role of language is its health principal. Language without metaphor is unhealthy - very dangerous. If you bring the metaphorical value to it, you give it flesh, substance and human relations; Life, being relations. So I think when we can keep up with the metaphorical value we are in good shape. DERRICK DE KERKHOVE (1995)

Director McLuhan ProgramUniversity of Toronto


GLOBAL IS LOCALThe ~wired world~ is often presented and perceived as a world without borders. To some extent this idea is true, particularly when analyzing how the Internet is used by various military organizations and multinational corporations; however, in a general sense, the Internet is not a world without borders. It does not exist in a vacuum. When an individual logs onto the net, his perception of the electronic experience is partly shaped and framed by the socialization practices of that person~s native country, and hence are national, not international in origin. The mythologies of the net which perhaps might seem most relevant to me are also partly determined by my geographic and cultural identity. The development of the mythologies through which the meaning of the net is constructed (or more accurately) imposed typically develop out of national interests. To sum up, the net is culturally and politically bordered.

The Mythology of Terrorism on the Net~Critical Art EnsembleSummer, 95


The Essence of Terrorism

then is not a revolutionary strategy, but one designed to force negotiation over policy. The essence of terrorism is twofold. First, a public perception that terrorist violence is

uncontrollable. The second essential quality is that terrorism requires organic bodies to house the terror. But since terrorist violence cannot occur on a very large scale (since it is cellular in nature), a third component is required~an apparatus that can and will spread the spectacle of fear in a manner that blankets the given territory. We call this apparatus ~the media.~ The terrorist~s violence allows her to appropriate this apparatus, and use it to deploy the type of fear that she sees as most advantageous.

This final component is what leads us to understand that terrorism, as a necessary radical strategy in the first world, is an anachronism. The control of spectacular space is no longer the key to understanding or maintaining domination. In stead, it is the control of virtual space (and/or control of the net apparatus) that is the new locus of power. For information economies, the net is the apparatus of command and control. Since division of labor has reached a plateau of unforeseen complexity, the most costly disaster that can happen in these economies is a communication gap; this would cause the specialized segments of the division of labor to fall out of synch. Those who are electronically literate and dedicated to resisting both state authority and the hegemony of pancapitalism can use this development to great advantage. Through simple tactics of trespass and blockage, these resisters can force the state, military, and corporate authorities to come to the negotiating table. Placing the public in a state of fear is no longer necessary, nor is it essential to inflict violence on people in order to incite political change. And oddly enough, not even private property needs to be attacked or destroyed. All that is needed to accomplish what terrorism rarely does~policy negotiation~is to deny access to data conduits and bodies of data.


Organic being Virtual

First, organic being in the world must be reestablished as the locus of reality, placing back the virtual in its proper place as simulacra. Only in such a situation can virtual environments serve a utopian function. If the virtual functions and is perceived as a superior form of being, it becomes a monstrous mechanism of control for the class that regulates access to it and mobility within it. The new calls for consolidation and fencing of the Internet are indicators that we are behind in this battle. Second, steps must be taken to separate political action in cyberspace from the signs of criminality and terrorism. The current state strategy seems to be to label anything as criminal that does not optimize the spread of pancapitalism and the enrichment of the elite. If we lose the right to protest in cyberspace in the age of information capital, we have lost the greater part of our individual sovereignty. We must demand more than the right to speak; we must demand the right to act in the ~wired world~ on behalf of our own consciences and out of goodwill for all.


Communities in a world of open

systemsAbstract“In the past, communities tended to be closed systems with relatively clear boundaries, stable memberships, and few linkages to other communities. We are now entering into an ‘age of open systems.’ Mobility creates new communities and kinds of communities. The impacts of mobility are far less than those of information and communications technology. Cyberspace has become a new kind of social terrain, crowded with ‘virtual communities.’ Television and radio create communities of people thinking and talking about the same things. Both mobility and the growth of communications networks reduce the predominance of geography as a force in shaping community. Many communities are much more fluid, and some are placeless. There are many different kinds of social groups and networks that people describe with the word ‘community.’ Most people are multi-community individuals, with many memberships, and many kinds of memberships. Although the world’s major religions still have some historic identification with specific regions, those geographic attachments are no longer as clear as they once were, and these religions are tending to become open systems. Some people prefer relatively closed social systems, while others flourish in freer environments. Choice is one of the most powerful forces in the lives of people being exposed to the forces of globalization. Community will continue to be a profound human need but will be redefined, perhaps many times over.”

Walter Truett Anderson (1999) p. 457

However However, there is a difference between this multi-individual because there are third worlders who move from communal to individual identities in a matter of moments – Peter Franks 23-07-2002



Hypertext and Critical Theory George Landow

Suggests we are currently undergoing a "revolution in human thought." Simultaneous paradigm shifts in apparently diverse disciplines are converging, creating a new conceptual system based in "multilinearity, nodes, links, and networks" rather than "centre, margin, hierarchy, and linearity."

Landow, George. Chapter 1: Hypertext and Critical Theory. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992

http://calliope.jhu.edu/press/books/landow/gplbio.html

http://calliope.jhu.edu/press/books/landow/gplbio.html

http://www.thecore.nus.edu.sg/landow/cpace/ht/jhup/contents.html

mailto:[email protected]


Engaging Hypertext “There is no doubt that the reader's engagement with the information presented in hypertext becomes more active and personal. But along with the temptation to instantly follow a ‘link within a link within a link’, comes the risk that the reader will be entirely distracted from the text, possibly never returning. And even for a reader dedicated enough to find her way back, the meaning of the whole may become lost in the sum of the parts— a particularly postmodern dilemma. Either way, the fragmented experience is unlikely to lead to any Gestalt understanding of the actual text, though the reader may loosely place that text in relationship to the larger network to which it is linked.”

Chris Dunning Got Change for a Paradigm:From Gutenberg to Hypertext© Copyright 1997 Chris Dunning, Last Updated: 1/29/2002


Premature totalisation

The Unattainable Gestalt“…the meaning of the whole may become lost in the sum of the parts — a particularly postmodern dilemma.”

Chris Dunning 1997


Chaos Theory“In recent years, the advent of chaos theory is one of the indications that something is beginning to change in the scientific community. Increasingly, scientists from different fields feel that they have somehow reached a dead end. It is necessary to break out in a new direction. The birth of chaos mathematics, therefore, is a proof as Engels would have said, of the dialectical character of nature, a reminder that reality consists of whole dynamic systems, or even one whole system, and not of models (however useful) abstracted from them. Alan Woods and Ted Grant (1995)Reason in Revolt:Marxism and Modern Science


Process over state "To some physicists, chaos is a science of process rather than state, of becoming rather than being."

"They feel that they are turning back a trend in science towards reductionism, the analysis of systems in terms of their constituent parts: quarks, chromosomes, or neutrons. They believe that they are looking for the whole."

Gleick, J., Chaos, Making a New ScienceNew York, 1988


Taking refuge in Chaos Theory

“The mainstream for most of the twentieth century," Gleick remarks, "has been particle physics, exploring the building blocks of matter at higher and higher energies, smaller and smaller scale, shorter and shorter times. Out of particle physics have come theories about the fundamental forces of nature and about the origin of the universe. Yet some young physicists have grown dissatisfied with the direction of the most prestigious of sciences. Progress has begun to seem slow, the naming of new particles futile, the body of theory cluttered. With the coming of chaos, younger scientists believed they were seeing the beginnings of a course change for all of physics. The field had been dominated long enough, they felt, by the glittering abstractions of high-energy particles and quantum mechanics." Gleick, J., Chaos, Making a New Science New York, 1988


MODERNITYThus the prophecy is realized:“We live in a world of simulation, in a world where the highest function of the sign is to make reality disappear and at the same time to mask this disappearance. Art does nothing else. The media today do nothing else. That is why art and the media follow the same course, and often become confused with one another. Nicholas Zurbrugg, (ed.) Jean Baudrillard: Art and Artefact. London, 1997, p.12


Gianfranco Sanguinetti (1969) aka CensorThere are five distinctive traits of contemporary capitalism with

which "Censor" wishes his readers to become familiar: the "quantitative and qualitative progress of political lies to a level of

power that has never been seen in history." (Though political lies only serve the interests of the ruling class, Censor perceives a danger in relying upon them overmuch: "too often [the] results are not in accord with the higher interests of the whole of the economic order.")

"a grandiose reinforcement of State power as an increasingly sophisticated organism of surveillance."

"the isolation, or better said, the separation of people has been highly perfected." "an unprecedented growth in the power of the economy and of industry"

to the point that "nothing exists that cannot be industrially produced, that is to say, that does not conform to the exigencies of profit."

"the vertiginous growth in the complication of the everyday intervention of human society on all aspects of the production of life, and its replacement of every natural element with a new factor that one could call artificial," which justifies and requires "the unmitigated power of every expert who erects and corrects the new economic and ecological equilibriums outside of which people can no longer live.“ The Real Report on the Last Chance to Save Capitalism in Italy (1997 Exposed as a a subversive prank by the author, January 1976


Lost in a virtual similitudeveri similitude = lie

Hosea warned:

They have made themselves imagesTo their undoing.

Tanakh: A New Translation of the Holy Scriptures. Jewish Publication Society.


Fostering Democracy as an alibi

Democracy is based in the individuated citizenry of the so-called developed world

Does Africa have a critical mass of such individuals in its populations to sustain even the watered down democracy of the modern world?

Does the culture sustain a separation of powers with its checks and balances?


DemocracyTechnical but not spiritual

Every person has a vote But, the spirit of dialogue and debate remains illusive.

Criteria rest on the ‘Free and Fair election’ in a ‘human Rights’ enviroment regardless of the spirit of dialogue and discussion

Don’t the electorateneed to be informed?


The Democratic Spirit

as Jean Jacques Rousseau was keen to point out in the Social Contract:““As soon as any man says of the affairs of the State, ‘What does it matter to me?’ the State may be given up for lost.”


Democratic LimitsIn response to the autocracy of Victorian Society the forces of democracy were revolutionary!In response to a world democratic thrust by the First World’s gobalisation project. ‘Democracy’, per se, is compromised. Can the concept play a role in adjusting globalisation to the needs of Third World peoples or will it remain a tool of imperialism


Program on International Policy Attitudes

Globalization in General

Overall, Americans tend to see globalization as somewhat more positive than negative and appear to be growing more familiar with the concept and more positive about it. A large majority favors moving with the process of globalization and only a small minority favors resisting it. Americans view globalization as a process of the world becoming increasingly interconnected. It is seen not only as an economic process, but also as one in which values are becoming more oriented to a global context and international institutions are playing a more central role.

http://www.americans-world.org/digest/global_issues/globalization/laborlaw.cfm

http://www.americans-world.org/digest/global_issues/globalization/laborlaw.cfm

http://www.pipa.org/


Abiding By US Labor Laws When Operating Outside US Overwhelming majorities feel US companies operating outside the US should be expected to abide by US laws on working conditions, even though they recognize this would likely lead to higher prices.

Abiding By US Environmental Laws When Operating Outside US Overwhelming majorities feel US companies operating outside the US should be expected to abide by US laws on the environment, even though they recognize this would likely lead to higher prices.\

Trading With Poor Countries Most Americans perceive that poor countries do not get a net benefit from international trade, and support giving poor countries preferential trade treatment. A strong majority supports lowering trade barriers with poor countries on a reciprocal basis.

http://www.americans-world.org/digest/global_issues/globalization/envlaw.cfm

http://www.americans-world.org/digest/global_issues/globalization/poorcountries.cfm

http://www.americans-world.org/digest/global_issues/globalization/int_cooperation.cfm


International Cooperation on Global Problems To address global problems, a very strong majority supports increased international cooperation. Support is strong for international institutions dealing with global problems like terrorism, the environment, and human rights issues. Only a small minority prefers to see the US tackle these problems on its own.

International Intervention in the Internal Affairs of States To address global problems, a strong majority supports international intervention in the internal affairs of countries to deal with terrorism, environmental issues, and especially when atrocities are being committed or civilians are suffering as a result of war.

International Environmental Agreements A strong majority thinks there should be international agreements on environmental standards, and that the US should abide by them. When given arguments for and against making more international agreements on the environment, a strong majority finds arguments in favor to be convincing, while a majority rejects arguments against the idea as unconvincing.

http://www.americans-world.org/digest/global_issues/globalization/intervention.cfm

http://www.americans-world.org/digest/global_issues/globalization/envAgreemnts.cfm

http://www.americans-world.org/digest/global_issues/globalization/culture.cfm


The Spread of American Popular Culture Americans show awareness that American popular culture is having a major impact on the world, but the majority does not show any desire to spread American culture. Americans show modest enthusiasm for American popular culture, but most reject the idea that it poses a threat to other cultures. The spread of American culture is not seen as a major cause for terrorism

http://www.americans-world.org/digest/global_issues/terrorism/terrorism_emoResp.cfm


See responses on terrorism Emotional Response to September 11An overwhelming majority of Americans has had a strong emotional response to the September 11 terrorist attacks, with nearly all Americans saying that they have followed the story closely and a strong majority saying they wept or felt depressed in response to the events. Substantial minorities reported trouble concentrating and sleeping. Fears and concerns about the possibility of terrorist attacks-which had been rising over the last decade--showed a sharp upward movement, higher than the response to earlier events, such as the Gulf War or the Oklahoma City bombing.

http://calliope.jhu.edu/press/books/landow/parallels.html


Observing the SelfOnce we acknowledge ourselves as observers, we must recognize the following:1. We are all different observers.2. All observers have their own strengths and weaknesses.

3. All observers have boundaries. No one can observe everything observed by others.

4. According to the kind of observer we are, we create different spaces of possibility upon which we may act.

5. The kind of observer we are helps to define the world we live in and the future ahead.Rafael Echeverrý’a, The observer and the changing self, Symposium Futures 31 (1999)


Inayatullah’s ScenariosLike death, the West has become ubiquitous. But will hegemony continue and are there any signals of possible transformation from within and without? Four alternatives for the West:

(1) A dramatic ageing population leading to a future where immigrants are required for survival, however, once in the holy land of Disney, multiculturalism may make porous the West itself.

(2) Genocide against the Other, resisting internal transformative processes

(3) The Artificial Society, wherein diversity and the Other are pushed back since high productivity can be achieved through the new information and genetic technologies, that is, through reductionist science and linear economic progress.

(4)While the latter technocratic scenario is most likely, there are possibilities that a more multicultural, gaian, communicative, globalist future may emerge. (Sohail Inayatullah*, Deconstructing the year 2000 Futures 32 (2000) 7–15, p7)


communicationinclusive visionInayatullah’s ‘Morning After’ agenda includes the following criteria

for a communicationinclusive vision of the future.1. “Epistemological pluralism—an openness to many ways of knowing, post-

normal science using Jerry Ravetz’s language.2. Economies that include growth/distribution and are soft on nature. Ending

the development paradigm and moving to an economics based on global labor, human rights, access to power and justice.

3. Spiral view of history and future, that is, the future is not linear but can turn back on the past to reinvigorate. This means seeing the future outside of the new, allowing for emergence but not making it into a fetish.

4. Progressive—that is, the dynamic dimension of progress is crucial but progress must be rescued from the exclusion of other, that is, seeing others within the terms of those that are economically currently ahead. Progress is needed for visioning the future but not as a tool for subordination. A history of progress must be about inclusion, of rights, as well as of increased economic wealth. Progress also means far better use of more subtle resources in managing our affairs, that is, imagination and spirituality.

5. Gender balance—gender equality, access to resources, self-meanings. Without ending male dominance, any future will be more of the same.

6. Ecological balance—living softly with nature—a commitment to future generations.” (p13-14)


Inayatullah’s vision/hope

As the intelligentsia for hypercapitalism search for new legitimating factors, the challenge for the anti-systemic movements, in this possible window of opportunity, will be to create visions and practices of a more multicultural society with an alternative economics that is spiritually grounded.

Can it be done? Perhaps. Will it be done? Yes. Once realized will it be a better future?

For the majority of the world, it will be a vast improvement, as they will finally regain their lost dignity. Feudalism, slavery, sexism, and capitalism will disappear from most pockets of the planet. Virtual futures will not disappear nor will space exploration. Exploitation of the other will not be eliminated either but at least it will be minimized.

Still, with a multicultural spiritual episteme defining the real, it will be a balanced society, prama, with glimmers of bliss for all.


The transmodern hypothesis:“For a Brussels Seminar at the European Commission, a “double hypothesis” was proposed: that we are in transition to a transmodern way of thinking that combines intuition and spirituality with rational brainwork;

and that 21st century conflicts will likely be not between religions or cultures but within them, between premodern, modern, and transmodern worldviews.

Non-Western thinkers find this framework useful: it opens a door to criticism of the worst aspects of modernity without being “anti-Western”.

A Seminar on “Governance and Civilizations”, co-sponsored by the World Academyof Art and Science, was held in May 1998 at the European Commission’s headquarters in Brussels


Non-Western visions - 1998Three remarks by non-Western participants in the Brussels Seminar point to a new

basis for East–West dialogue: “Going beyond modernity is, for us, an effort to find ourselves again. Contrary

to Western understanding, our first aim is not to attack or criticize the West ... If we are in reaction against this “modernization”—which took the form of Europeanization first, and Americanization later—it is because we understand now how deeply this “modernization” has alienated us from ourselves. We are interested in this new concept of transmodernization because, as we understand it, this concept allows us to find again our roots and identity in a global world.”

“We want to create a globally oriented yet indigenously rooted future. Among us, some are really backward-looking, right wing, wanting to return to the roots, nothing more. Others really want to be open to the future. They try to return to the roots, but with a future-oriented point of view. Those future-oriented people correspond to your concept of the transmodern.”

“There is already a dialogue and cross-fertilization going on between Asian cultures and Western culture. The same thing is true for the historic role of Islam. But we are urging the West to change, and go into a real dialogue. Here are our proposals for such a dialogue. First, encounter us on equal footing, abandoning any superiority complex; second, listen in depth; third, be self-denying; fourth, start from zero, in a new type of relationship among equals. Like Christ who emptied himself until death in order to resurrect. This is also coherent with the Buddhist tradition of “non-self” and service as self-denial, and with the Confucianisttradition of the necessity to overcome selfishness.” 977-978Seminar on “Governance and Civilizations”, co-sponsored by the World Academyof Art and Science, was held in May 1998 at the European Commission’s headquarters in Brussels.


Premodern paradigm

after Mark Luyckx (1999)


Modern paradigmafter Mark Luyckx (1999)


Transmodern paradigm

after Mark Luyckx (1999)


Scenarios for Identity What then are the scenarios of the future? The first is the future as “schizophrenia” [9]. Faced with the onslaught

of cloning, nano-technology, space travel, shrinking space and shrinking time (increased demands made on one to survive financially within globalism), selves implode. Nothing is real and everything is real. There are no layers of reality, only monsters chasing us day and night, with the self having no idea when it is day and when it is night, since nature will have ended, become virtualized or roboticized.

The second is the “postmodern liberal” scenario, where the middle-class and rich West float away into spiritual and chemical bliss, negotiating all realities by consuming them. Juxtaposed to floating selves are grounded fundamentalist selves of the religious and scientific varieties, each unwilling to give an inch on History and Truth.

The third scenario is “struggle with bliss”. Selves are complex and layered; an inclusive spirituality is the ground but evil and struggles within and without are intrinsic to them. The self is as complex as multiple ways of knowing define it.Sohail Inayatullah Symposium, A depth approach to the futures of the self, Futures 31 (1999)


Warning: ‘development’s has unintended consequences

“What I argue for is a layered self, which does not discount ego, family, nation, religion, race or ideology but progressively moves through these various aspects of identity, until humanity is embraced, and then finally a neo-humanism self, wherein nature and the spiritual are included. Identity thus has depth but is not shaped by the dogmas of the past.”

She continues:“If we do not go this way then the long-term result will be depression. Already the World Health Organization forecasts “that unipolar depression will be the leading cause of ‘Disability Adjusted Life Years’ throughout the developing regions in the world.’. By the year 2020, non-communicable diseases such as depression and heart disease are expected to account for seven out of every ten deaths in the developing regions, compared with less than half today. Death becomes the future since hope is lost.”

Sohail Inayatullah Symposium, A depth approach to the futures of the self, Futures 31 (1999) 813–817


End of history????The seduction of the postmodern future is that it allows for other ways of knowing since reality is seen as socially constructed and not given by a higher being or a greater power. However, the trojan horse is that behind the sensibility of poststructuralism —which methodologically contests all discourses—is the ontology within which it functions. “Rather than presuming an underlying system of order, a form of life in which the self can achieve authenticitiy or non-alienation, it assumes that Being is fundamentally disordered and that every interpretation of the order is an arbitrary imposition” [6]. It is thus ontology that civilizations outside of the Western discourse must see as part of modernity/postmodernity and not in any way as natural.

With this accomplished, alternative histories and futures can be created that challenge postmodernism.

Inyatullah 1999 quoting Shapiro M. Reading the postmodern polity. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1992.


Being without roots

At heart the light, swift and teflon vision of the future, of the self, is ahistorical (although more scholarly efforts attempt to locate this discourse within general evolutionary systems theory) and culturally exploitative. Why? As American Indians have told New Age appropriators, if you desire to use our symbols, our names, our dances, our mysticism, then you must as well participate in our pain, in our defeats, in our anguish. You must also see us in our humanity, good and evil, and not as noble savages. It is the arbitrary exclusion of certain dimensions of history and self that become problematic.Inayatullah 1999


Inayatullah’s conclusion of hope

“I hope for the third scenario but see it coming into fruition only after the levity/heaviness of the second is resolved. The first remains ever present, and with no evidence that it will go away for a long time yet. Perhaps, there will always be contradictions: with light there is always darkness, the heavy is always measured against the light. So even our desired spiritual pluralistic futures will be contradictory, there will always be dimensions of self we can not see, perhaps fundamentally never see.”

Sohail Inayatullah Symposium, A depth approach to the futures of the self, Futures 31 (1999)


The Promise of Prosperity (one)

We Boomers should have recognized the early signs of what was to come, but we completely missed them. We really were trapped in our time. But now, in the year 2050, it's crystal clear. The entire world has made a massive leap forward. By anyone's standards, the world we live in now, in the middle of the twenty-first century, is a much better place to be. You can make the comparison using almost any measurement - general prosperity, improving environment, stable population, technological wonders, scientific breakthroughs, rising standards of living, or lowering levels of poverty, or of violence, or of whatever problem you choose. You pick the category and we¹re much better off today.Long Boom Scenarios, 2000


The Promise of Prosperity (two)

Who would have thought that by the year 2050 we would be able to pull the vast majority of the world's population into a decent middle-class lifestyle? The average person now lives at a material level once reserved for just elite Western nations. Virtually everyone is beyond the absolutely miserable conditions that more than half the world's population lived in just fifty years ago. Reaching that material threshold took a huge amount of growth in the global economy, and no one ever thought we could do it without completely destroying the environment.


The Promise of Prosperity (three)

We were convinced that the coming century would bring a meltdown in the polar ice caps, rising sea levels, bizarre weather, rampant disease - all of which turned out not to be true. And almost all the basic fears we grew up with - that a faceless enemy will wage total war, that intercontinental nuclear missiles would come screaming over the horizon, that life as we knew it would be eradicated in a flash - all that is gone. When those threats receded, other ones took their place: terrorism, biological warfare, the crazy rogue nation that would still launch nukes. All these things never really materialized, or if they did, we severely contained them or nipped them in the bud. Long Boom Scenarios, 2000


The Promise of Prosperity (four)

And now we are looking back on 100 years without a major world war. Not since World War II have the world's most powerful peoples waged all-out war against each other. We've had our skirmishes and close calls, but we've now hit a plateau where world war is essentially a thing of the past. Who would have thought it?

Long Boom Scenarios, 2000


Cyber-idealismR.L. Meier / Futures 32 (2000) 163–181, p 172

-


Smuts: Circa 1900 "History will show convincingly that the pleas of humanity, civilization, and equal rights, upon which the British Government bases its actions, are nothing else but the recrudescence of that spirit of annexation and plunder which has at all times characterized its dealings with our people" (p. 3).

– [Jan Christian Smuts], A Century of Wrong, Issued by Secretary of State of the Transvaal Republic, Reitz, London, 1900


John Foster Dulles “War, Peace and Change," (1939)

Change is the result of the dynamic prevailing over the static ... if ... man cannot prevent change from occurring, he can, if he is intelligent, impart to change a certain selectivity. He can influence the form which change assumes and the rate at which it occurs. He can deflect the impact of change away from values if not things. (p. 138)


Guneratne’s warning 1997

We may not be as wretched as we once were, but we are still, to use Fanon's piercing phrase, "hemmed in" by a History which is, in Michel de Certeau's memorable description of it, "homogenous to the documents of Western activity." The answer I needed to give to my friend is also the reason I take pains to contrast the Bakhtin of postcolonialism with the Bakhtin of postcoloniality, for progress is, amongst other things, an ideology and very often an ideology of dependence, and those of us who, progressively, rush to adopt the innovations of "the West" face the same dangers as "Third World" infants fed on Nestlé's milk powders, becoming dependent to the point of addiction on a mode of institutional practice which may not be particularly healthy for us.

(THE VIRTUAL SPACES OF POSTCOLONIALITY: Rushdie, Ondaatje, Naipaul, Bakhtin and the Others )


Gunreatne ContinuesWhich is not to say that any innovation or technological advancement-such as the internet-need be rejected out of hand because it is still in the hands of the privileged. So were paper and the Latin script once upon a time, according to the great Indonesian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer, who is less concerned about the importation of American popular culture and methods of communication into Indonesia through television than about the medium's insidious implantation of consumerist desire. On the contrary, the internet, like the codex and typeface, may one day be turned into a counter-hegemonic instrument, providing the virtual space without boundaries where a community whose existence is now no more than a figment of critical idealism can overcome the divisions and the divisiveness that elsewhere keeps us apart.


Nelson Mandela September 17 2002

“One country cannot bully the whole world. We cannot allow that.”

SABC News


Discredited Western Values

In the fifties and sixties, the peoples of the newly independent African countries were told Western values would inspire modernization and lead oppressed people to demand the human rights enjoyed by people in the Western World. Today Africans find it ironic that the values broadcasted from the West represent oppression of the poor and the decay of civilization. Consequently, Western values are fast becoming discredited and devalued in the eyes of many Africans.

Wole Akande, Western Values Becoming Discredited in Eyes of Africans, CounterPunch March 11, 2002


The Anti-Dream PlanWilliam S. Burroughs 1974

“(…If I hold up a hieroglyphic sign for rose you do not have to repeat the word, and even have the option of silence.) Admittedly, two control systems, the Mayan and the Egyptian, were based on hieroglyphic writing. However, these control systems were predicated on the illitieracy of the controlled. Universal literacy with its concommitant control of word and image is now the instrument of control. An essential feature of the Western control machine is to make language as non-pictorial as possible, to separate words as far as possible from objects or observable processes.” p. 103


Smokey Horizons Dr Dan Chiribuca, of Cluj in Transylvania, sees it this way. Young

people once used to live close to nature, when the sky was the border of their imagination. Now their desires are set by the dream-makers. “We used to control what we could see in the sky—our own thoughts; our own imagination. Now television has replaced the sky.” A problem with the entertainment industry, according to Chiribuca, is that the more successful it becomes, the more people consume it. This opens a big gap between the huge expectations created by the global intrusion of Western culture and their own realisation in Eastern Europe. This gap can be represented in what Chiribuca calls the deprivation index. It shows the discrepancy between people’s expectations and their decreasing chances of achieving such expectations.

Young people in Eastern Europe dream to live like Americans. But with an average income in Romania of US$100 per month, their dreams of such a ‘superficial life’ are not likely to be transformed into reality, he argues. This discrepancy is just one of many factors blurring the focus of young people on their longer-term horizons. In some cases, it brings apathy, or a resignation that an individual has little or no hope of creating different futures from the ones envisioned with the conventional ‘wisdom’. 217 Trajectories / Futures 32 (2000) 215–218


Western African values

But what is there to fill up the vacuum of decaying Western values? The expression "African values," now typically propagated by Zimbabwean dictator Mugabe, is generally discredited as being the government propaganda of dictators.

There is indeed a general confusion about which set of values might take the place of the once universal Western value set. However, the search for new or old values is ongoing. A search for historic, cultural roots can be observed in all non-Western societies. Predictably, any revivalist movement is bound to meet resistance especially since "Asian," "African" and "Muslim" values have also been questioned as a result of their use of the most repressive parts of their cultural roots.

Even so, the peoples of Africa nowadays act more self-confident on behalf of their roots than only a decade ago. Local cultural expressions, beginning with the arts, lead on a path towards cultural autonomy, which again should influence the value set.

Might one, therefore, express a hope that the bearers of liberty and true cultural values in this century will not be the Western world? The fight against repression, increasingly without significant Western support, still is in its beginnings in many African nations. Fought with more truly indigenous values, it might even have a better chance of succeeding. Then the answer to the question may very well be positive.Wole Akande, Western Values Becoming Discredited in Eyes of Africans, CounterPunch March 11, 2002


The Phillipine “temptation” Mark Twain c 1900

“We have pacified some thousands of the islanders and buried them; destroyed their fields, burned their villages, and turned their widows and orphans out-of-doors; furnished heartbreak by exile to some dozens of disagreeable patriots; subjugated the remaining ten millions by Benevolent Assimilation, which is the pious new name of the musket; we have acquired property in the three hundred concubines and other slaves of our business partner, the Sultan of Sulu, and hoisted our protecting flag over that swag. And so, by these Providences of God -- and the phrase is the government's, not mine -- we are a World Power.” Twain marvelled that thirty thousand American soldiers killed a million Filipinos: "Thirty thousand killed a million. It seems a pity that the historian let that get out; it is really a most embarrassing circumstance" (1992, 62). In February 1899, the month in which the Filipino-American War began and the U.S. Senate ratified the treaty formalizing the annexation of Spain's former colonies, Rudyard Kipling's poem, “The White Man’s Burden," appeared. In it the poet echoed U.S. Senator Albert Beveridge's claim of "the mission of our race, trustee under God, of the civilization of the world" (1987, 23).From: E. San Juan, Jr., (1955) Postcolonial Theory Versus Philippine Reality:The Challenge of Third World Resistance Culture to Global Capitalism,


Global Traditional

“The major obstacle to any scientific and emancipatory exploration of U.S. imperialist hegemony in the Philippines inheres in the controlling paradigm of philosophical idealism that has founded disciplines and legitimized their regimes of truth. …the dominant schema is the generalizing one of culture -- traditional patterns of conduct, norms, beliefs, attitudes, together with their corresponding practices of symbolic translation and signification -- as the explanatory key to the subaltern condition of the Filipino..” E. San Juan, Jr., (1955) Postcolonial Theory Versus Philippine Reality:The Challenge of Third World Resistance Culture to Global Capitalism


The Political Context

“Technology was not the cause, only the medium. The source of globalisation was the process of capitalist restructuring that sought to overcome the crisis of the mid-seventies.” Without state’ “decisive deregulation, globalisation could not have taken place.”

– Manuel Castells, Leadership, August 2000, p.64


Mass suicide of States “It became a kind of mass suicide of states, because, “once the process of globalisation was put into motion, it became largely out of control from the hands of states.

The curent system – at least in the short term – is working to the great advantage of the US economy and US firms, particularly financial firms which are channeling a growing proportion of global investment.”

Manual Castells, Ledership, August 2000, p. 64


Losing Control“To put it in a nutshell: no one seems now to be in control. Worse still – it is not clear what ‘being in control’ could, under the circumstances, be like. As before, all ordering initiatives and actions ar local and issue-oriented; but there is no longer a locality arrogant enough to pronounce for mankind as a whole, or to be listened to and obeyed by mankind when making the pronouncements. Neither is there a single issue which could grasp and telescope the totality of global affairs while commanding global consent.Zygmunt Baumann, 1998, p58


Dulles’ insight revisited

“The idea of ‘globalization’ explicitly refers to von Wright’s ‘anonymous forces’, operating in the vast – foggy and slushy, impassable and untamable – ‘no man’s land’, stretching beyond the reach of the design-and-action capacity of anybody[’s] in particular.” Zygmunt Baumann, 1998, p60


A QuandaryAt a moment when we are calling for a Renaissance of Africa we accept the reification of Human Rights uncritically.‘Human Rights’ are being imported from an alienated/virtual society of individuals to a society still largely based in extended relationships of blood lines and flesh. What does this say to building on our cultural strengths and finding African solutions to our problems?


Technological Marshal Plan for 4th World

“The notion that South Africa per se can lift the rest of Africa out of underdevelopment is not realitic. In fact, it would be quit enough – and quite remarkable - if the country itself succeeds to survive in this new economy.It cannot be the engine of Africa.”A technological Marshal Plan is needed

• Manuel Castells, Quoted in Hein Marais, sink or Swim, Leadership, August 2000


The enabling magic of technology?-


Leapfrogging to Leapfrogging to modernity ?modernity ?

Consumption at a quarter of Euro–American levels requires only a little planning, and a tenth of those levels seems possible with careful organization and discipline. Then people would be able to move easily to late-blooming societies which accelerated progress through their choice of the happiness path to development. Simultaneously, some talented, energetic individuals who started poor could use the Internet to gain entry into the circle of world servers within a lifetime.

Richard L. Meier (2000)City and Regional Planning, University of California–BerkeleyLate-blooming societies can be stimulated by information technology


Vision or relegation to dependence?Happiness as a goal for development. Instead of accumulating wealth and power, the poorest societies should aim at happiness. Societies whose populations report being ‘very happy’ or ‘happy’ ahead of all others, frequently consume only 10–20% of those considered ‘highly developed’ [12–16]. What they have in common are prior investments in sectors shown above. Note that all of the supports are information-intensive. When people choose meditation, instead of marginal employment, they may prefer to be serene, a kind of happiness that could be arrived at soonest. Field studies suggest that youth, however, may opt for full participation in the production system (i.e., a real job!), which will require more infrastructure and investment in human resources [17]. Meyer, Futures 32 (2000), p 173, fig. 2


Beware of those bearing gifts

-

Meyer, Futures 32 (2000), p 173,

Figure 2


Foreclosing the Future“The California Ideology is a mix of cybernetics, free market economics, and counter-culture libertarianism and is promulgated by magazines such as Wired and Mondo 2000 as well as the books of Stewart Brand, Kevin Kelly and many others. The new faith has been embraced by computer nerds, slacker students, thirty-something capitalists, hip academics, futurist bureaucrats and even the President of the USA himself. As usual, Europeans have not been slow to copy the latest fashion from America.”“The prophets of the Californian Ideology argue that only the cybernetic flows and chaotic eddies of free markets and global communications will determine the future. Political debate therefore, is a waste of breath. As neo-liberals, they assert that the will of the people, mediated by democratic government through the political process, is a dangerous heresy which interferes with the natural and efficient freedom to accumulate property. As technological determinists, they believe that human social and emotional ties obstruct the efficient evolution of the machine. Abandoning democracy and social solidarity, the Californian Ideology dreams of a digital nirvana inhabited solely by liberal psychopaths.”THE CALIFORNIAN IDEOLOGYRichard Barbrook and Andy Cameron (1995)

http://www.wmin.ac.uk/media/richard/about_RB.html


There are Alternatives“Despite its claims to universality, the Californian Ideology was developed by a group of people living within one specific country following a particular choice of socio-economic and technological development. Their eclectic blend of conservative economics and hippie libertarianism reflects the history of the West Coast - and not the inevitable future of the rest of the world. The hi- tech neo-liberals proclaim that there is only one road forward. Yet, in reality, debate has never been more possible or more necessary. The Californian model is only one among many.”THE CALIFORNIAN IDEOLOGYRichard Barbrook and Andy Cameron (1995)

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War : circa the Gulf War

“Our wars thus have less to do with the confrontation of warriors than with the demestication of the refractory forces on the planet, those uncontrollable elements as the police would say, to which belong not only Islam in its entirety but wild ethnic groups, minority languages etc. All that is singular and irreducible must be reduced and absorbed. In this sense, the Iran-Iraq war was a successful first phase: Iraq served to liquidate the most radical form of the anti-Western challenge, even though it never defeated it.” p. 86

Jean Baudrillard, (1995) The Gulf War did not take place,Indiana University Press


Future War JAMES DER DERIAN: What comes next?

PAUL VIRILIO: I think that the infosphere - the sphere of information - is going to impose itself on the geosphere. We are going to be living in a reduced world. The capacity of interactivity is going to reduce the world, real space to nearly nothing. Therefore, in the near future, people will have a feeling of being enclosed in a small, confined, environment. In fact, there is already a speed pollution which reduces the world to nothing. Just as Foucault spoke of this feeling among the imprisoned, I believe that there will be for future generations a feeling of confinement in the world, of incarceration which will certainly be at the limit of tolerability, by virtue of the speed of information. If I were to give a last image, interactivity is to real space what radioactivity is to the atmosphere.


Terrorism strategic edge

“Globalization in the form of more porous borders makes terrorism easier. Globalization in the form of media attention makes echoes ring louder.”

“Practically speaking, terrorism has not been a particularly efficacious form of conflict for nations. So-called rogue states such as Iran, Libya, and North Korea have all faced political and economic isolation for sponsoring acts of international terrorism. When terrorism is at sufficiently high levels as to become guerrilla warfare, its chances of success may be greater; but few are the small states that can exploit a population of disaffected compatriots across the border to make this work.”


Post – New Left Terrorism

“Foremost, Melucci argues, terrorism must be analyzed as a symptom of broader social pathology: of the distortions and repression inherent in the state's response to the protests in the 1960s; of the tendency toward integralism and totalization that characterize the "old left" sectarian social movements which resurfaced as the New Left declined; and of the narcissistic impulses evident in the identity politics of the new social movements. Lodged between these elements, Melucci argues that post-New Left terrorism is more fruitfully understood as an expressive, largely dramaturgical phenomenon, as opposed to a type of strategic political action. The ideologies, organizations and tactics that typify this form of terrorism are rendered intelligible through the lens of an identity-oriented paradigm (Cohen 1985). Simply put, Melucci's analysis suggests that the primary goal of post-New Left terrorism is not to mobilize a revolution, it is to maintain the collective identity of the protagonists as revolutionaries.”Gilda Zwerman (1995)


identity-vulnerable activists“The emergence of post-New Left terrorism may be

most fruitfully understood in terms of corresponding disintegrative trajectories which unfold at the structural and psychological levels. The correspondence exists between the disintegration of the social movement, a process in which the state is the key protagonist and the disintegration of the ego, a process that is internal to the activist. Although the identity vulnerable activist may elude her captors for many years, she is "arrested" long before she is imprisoned, at a moment of social movement decline in which radical politics, emotional need, and repression collide.”Gilda Zwerman (1995)


Engaged to the State

“The ideological tenets of revolutionary anti-imperialism, a specific version of insurgency, had an appeal to the identity-vulnerable activist that went beyond politics: it assuaged her own emptiness by permitting her to "lend" herself out to aggrieved and powerless "others," "nations," or "people" and to construe her actions as determined by their needs. Thus, the possibility for achieving authenticity was bound to the salvation of an abstract, distant "other." To this end, the more risks she took, the more she sacrificed, the more empowered she felt.”Gilda Zwerman (1995)


COINTELPRO Circa 1960’s

“Since the passage of the Freedom of Information Act in 1979, researchers have acquired a considerable amount of documentation concerning the federal government's Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) directed at the New Left in the period between 1969 and 1974. Measures included aggressive forms of intelligence gathering through electronic and physical surveillance, infiltration, breaking into offices and ransacking of organizational files; disruption of organizations using agent provocateurs and disinformation campaigns; criminal frame-ups of key activists and wide-net distribution of grand jury subpoenas; and use of courtroom trials as forums in which activists were publicly degraded (Antonio, 1971; Donner, 1980; Zwerman, 1989).

Since many COINTELPRO documents still have not been made available, and many of those that are available have been deleted of information or reclassified as "top secret," researchers are probably accurate when they suggest that the impact of repression on the New Left, especially Black insurgent groups, remains grossly underestimated. Consequently, contemporary social movement scholars are paying more attention to repression and viewing it as an external, independent variable in causal explanations of New Left decline (Marx 1973).” Gilda Zwerman (1995)


“Terrorism” or Cointelpro

The half-world into which the state had drawn insurgents in 1969-70, had by 1973-74, become their whole world. On the one hand, COINTELPRO had effectively reduced public political space to a narrow, well-trafficked corridor in which a mixed-based constituency of radicals and criminals shuttled in and out of clandestinity, to and from meals and meetings in tiny collectives, target practice, armed actions, court, and prison. On the other hand, the draconian character of the repression and the secrecy surrounding their activities infused great meaning into this restrictive existence. The insurgents called it "armed struggle." And the state called it "terrorism."

Ironically, the term "terrorism" itself, as the state applied it to insurgency groups, provided a context where -- otherwise there would have been none. It implied that this tiny, nomadic fringe of sixties radicalism constituted a substantial threat to the nation's internal security; that they possessed the potential to (re) mobilize a mass movement; and that they received training and support from international guerrilla movements. This list of accusations was as close as these insurgents would ever come to fulfilling their political aspirations.Gilda Zwerman (1995)


The proactive state“Genoa [during the protests against the G8 Summit in Genoa] certainly wasn't the first time that the police dressed themselves up in black, went to a mass demonstration against globalization, pretended to be anarchists spoiling for a fight, and provoked a violent "crack-down" on peaceful demonstrators. A similar incident occurred in Barcelona just a few months ago. Because Black Bloc groupings are relatively easy to fake -- all the police or the fascists need are black clothes, things to disguise their faces and a few props -- we can expect that such incidents will become more and more frequent. Already there is talk on the IMC network about the need for "the Black Bloc" to re-evaluate its tactics in light of the shooting death of Carlo Giuliani. Here people come very close to making the same mistake that Toni Negri made in the 1970s: our attention should be on the State and its secret services; if we presume to evaluate the mistakes or errors of "the Black Bloc," we might (more) easily be framed as its masterminds.”

NOT BORED!31 July 2001

http://www.notbored.org/fsb.html


Warning: To the People of the Peripheral Political EconomiesDo not let the current “tears of the white man” lull you into uncritically accepting the ”Promises of Globalisation”. While at the same time the Rand Corporation describes the emergence of:

“Strategic Information war” .The palimpsest of the globalisation of Democracy.either way we cannot avoid engagement with its processes!


“NAI” dropped because the Afrikaans slang word “Naai” means to copulate

Are we Africans being f#%*ed?

NEPADFormerly –the New Africa

Initiative (NAI)


Editorial: Cynics tread on Africa's hopes

Sunday Times, Johannesburg, 14-07-2002

Concludes:“The Durban summit laid the foundation for all Africans to get involved in the reconstruction of their continent. The leaders have a duty to act harshly against those in their ranks who violate human rights, undermine democracy and loot their nations' coffers. The people of the continent have a duty to hold their leaders to the solemn pledge made in Durban and then to also get involved in the hard work of rebuilding Africa. Mere cynicism will be our biggest enemy and the greatest ally of the despots who wish to continue dragging this continent backwards.”


Marx was right; capitalism is eating itself Justice Malala Insight, Sunday Times, 14-07-2002Scandals reveal the system's fault linesColumn begins:“COMMUNISTS of the world, rejoice. Capitalism is finally devouring

itself, wreaking havoc with the world's stock markets as one scandal after another rips through the corporate world.”

And, concludes:“There is only one hope for communism, or whatever current thinking is following on its heels. That hope lies in capitalism itself. Just as it has put itself on the spot now, it will do so again. And one day even the most die-hard of capitalists will have to take a hard look at the system and acknowledge that it doesn't work. They will have to agree that it has done a lot for the rich and crooked, and little or nothing for the poor and honest. Perhaps then the world can usher in a new era where a more humane, more workable and more realistic alternative to these two failed ideologies can rise.”


Your money is better off in SA

“The world, and the US in particular, has entered an unpredictable period. Wise people will realise the US is no place to be investing money right now, she says. Instead, South Africans should look at investing at home for healthy returns.”

"The September 11 attacks are not a problem. It was not 9/11 that killed this economy. The ones doing it are Enron, Merrill Lynch, Arthur Andersen, Kmart. Orman says executives are leading the corporations today for their own benefit, at the expense of the worker.”

“Anyone who thinks this is a passing phase has got to be out of their mind. Of course it's going to happen again."

Suze Orman,2002Popular American Financial AdvisorInterviewed by Justice Matlala, Money, Business Times, Sunday Times, 14-07-2002


Buying into the West?“After eight years in power South Africa’s leaders must understand that their strategy just isn’t working. The currency keeps crashing, jobs are evaporating.The ruling elite do not perceive a strategy that will change global power relations. Some say the small clique at the top benefit from selling out to the West in the way that Author Frantz Fanon warned about.”

Cf. Fanons, reflection on the comprador class which only serves its own interests and those of the Western Masters in the Wretched of the Earth,

“Globalisation is what we used to call Imperialism but we’re too polite nowadays to call a spade by its name.”

Patrick BondFanon’s Warning, 2002Interviewed by Bongani Madondo, Sowetan Sunday World, 14-07-2002, p18


“Build a people’s economy –

defend the public sector”

During the transition there has been weak growth and a relatively weak accumulation process. For many of the major South African corporations, the key strategic objective has been to disinvest, to use huge capital reserves, generated over decades of apartheid to now accumulate in other markets. Government’s liberalisation measures have, by and large, played directly into this agenda. This is not to say that there has been no capital accumulation within South Africa. However, insofar as there are some new (or perhaps persisting and residual) accumulative processes under-way, the following statistics provide some pointers:

total compensation of workers increased by 5,7 percent in nominal terms for the year to September 2000. After inflation, workers as a group effectively received 0,8 percent less than the year before. Over the same period, the operating surplus of companies increased by 17 percent, a whopping increase of 10 percent in real terms.

For the same period total compensation of employees as a percentage of gross domestic product fell to its lowest level since 1980. This reflects, principally, the very substantial job losses in the formal sector over the last six years. Firms, however, had their biggest slice of the cake since 1980, with surplus as a percentage of GDP at is highest point in 20 years. Shareholders have benefited relatively, while workers have lost.

The final 15 years of the apartheid era saw a massive transfer of wealth from poor to rich (the income of the poorest 60 percent dropped by about 35 percent). However, by 1996 we had not reversed the trend, on the contrary the gap between rich and poor had grown even greater. In 1996, the poorest quintile of the population received 1.5 percent of total income, compared to the 65 percent received by the richest quintile, and the 48 percent by the richest 10 percent.

The "deracialisation" of wealth, power and privilege is often exaggerated. The emergence of black strata of the bourgeoisie is extremely limited, and is largely based either on relatively crude plundering of public resources, or on complicated financial gearing and share acquisitions that are typically initiated by white and international capitalist forces themselves for pre-emptive, buying-off purposes, or to acquire political influence and credibility. Nonetheless, notwithstanding these weaknesses, the most significant deracialisation has indeed happened at the upper quintile level. The proportion of urban Africans in the richest quintile increased five-fold between 1990 and 1995 (from a mere 2 percent to 10 percent), a trend that has probably continued. However, poverty, marginalisation, unemployment, vulnerability to disease remain overwhelmingly racialised (and gendered).

African communist, second quarter 2001.


Globalisation is imperialismThe SACP advances this, perhaps obvious, perspective, not for the purposes of a rhetorical flourish, but to ensure that we approach current international realities scientifically, and not just descriptively. For the past 25 years or so, there has been another intensified wave of internationalized capitalist expansion, driven, not just by technological advances (notably in ICT) but also by sharpening and systemic internal contradictions (notably declining profitability in the core centres of capitalist accumulation).To side-line the concept "imperialism", displacing it with the vague and entirely descriptive term "globalisation" runs the risk of portraying current international realities as largely neutral and benign processes, brimming with positive possibilities, apart from a few "market failures". The latter are portrayed as the result of a combination of developing countries and their governments failing to "adapt" to the new realities, and of some unfortunate aspects ("oversights") in the international "rules of the game", which we need now to "change" through persuasion.


The Muslim Quandary The political situations of many Arab countries are highly unstable and liable

to sudden and dramatic change. Political risk in the Middle East frequently involves religious factors, since the oppositions to the governments of several Middle Eastern countries have a fundamentalist religious base. Note, however, that it may well be that a multitude of secular opposition groups are using the various Islamic factions as convenient vehicles for resisting the status quo. A factor encouraging political uncertainty is perhaps the absence of democratic government (in the western sense) in some Arab countries. Note that the United States of America depends on the Middle East for nearly half of its oil imports, giving the US a big incentive to intervene to promote political stability.

Arab society can fruitfully link itself with world commerce so as to satisfy its basic economic needs, through the later it can maintain its moral purpose by following the principles of the 'Shariaa'. Egypt is an example of such a society where the two coexist. Islam is not against modernization. The problem is not modernization, the problem is certain aspects of modernization. Improving the standard of living in keeping with Islamic principles. Muslims need hotels, but do they need casinos? Muslim conservatives do not object to foreign investment; such investments should not mean pornography, extramarital sex, alcoholism drug addiction, gambling, juvenile delinquency and big crimes. Muslim conservatives reject these evils in any society they are totally unrelated to progress and modernization.


Postmodern naughtiness“Globalisation is addressed in an avuncular if not paternal fashion. Wise Uncle OECD countries will collectively share information on how to be like them, with aspiring well behaved (democratic, free trade practising, appropriately respectful) nieces and nephews in the developing world. Some may even get a leg up if they are struggling, providing they are really trying. There are prices to be paid though. Naughtiness such as pollution generated by trying to go through the same development processes as OECD countries already have will be frowned on and anything even remotely similar to a command economy will earn a smack on the wrist.” (p. 494)

Stephen Rennie (2000)Reviewing: 21st Century Technologies: Promises and Perils of a Dynamic Future; OECD Forum for the Future, OECD, Paris, 1998,


Hyper Globalisation? ”Talking with a friend who is a psychiatrist in Nepal, we tried

to envisage Kathmandu as some of these changes take effect. Modern four-wheel drive cars already infest many streets in the Nepalese capital. Their noise and pollution is a problem, but one which can be tackled by local means. Global IT industries bring a different kind of problem and one for which an answer may not be so easily found. In a society which is still very traditional in its rural areas, we may soon see the children of marginal farmers working in these industries at rates of pay possibly lower than their European counterparts, but still many times those of their parents. Who will stay to work the land? How will they respond to the call back to the family home when their parents are old or sick and need their care? The UK took two hundred years to come to terms with these changes and is struggling to cope. Can Nepal do it in ten? The suicide rate amongst Welsh hill farmers is the highest of any social group in the UK. Is that the price a marginal farmer in Nepal must pay for progress?” p. 495Stephen Rennie (2000)

Reviewing: 21st Century Technologies: Promises and Perils of a Dynamic Future; OECD Forum for the Future, OECD, Paris, 1998,


Neo-liberal globalisation

versussustainable

globalisation“A new international settlement is in the process of being worked out to replace the post-cold war order. The term which has gained currency after the neo-liberal episode of the 80s is globalisation [1]. It is barely a decade since this term has become fashionable. Views range from those who say there is no distinct globalis-ation from earlier forms to those who claim globalisation has touched if not transformed everything. The sceptics emphasize continuity while the transformists emphasize discontinuity from earlier histories of global orders. The former consider the whole hype of globalisation as a myth [2], asserting no essential difference to history. The transformists assert that the on-going globalisation is a multidimensional process affecting every aspect of the human condition.”

Mammo Muchie (200) p. 131-132


“We have discovered the enemy and they is us” Pogo circa 1960’s

“ The peculiar political economy of SSA [Sub-Saharan Africa] is the dominance of foreign aids. This has to change by focusing to create a conducive internal social–economic reform. The SSA region needs to change the often unreliable institutional environment, correcting the weak production and communication infrastructure, constructing and training human capital, and adjusting government industrial and economic policies which are heavily influenced by the intellectual orientation and priorities of major donors. As a consequence, SSA’s development has been misdirected with leaderships which guide it unable to overcome the limitation of the “political economy of their own belly”, often privatizing the state to maintain political support.

The main policy problem is thus internal rather than external. It should address the problem of how the SSA region can and should re-organize in order to build knowledge, skills, learning, capabilities, institutions, incentives and resources to address economic and environmental problems.”

Mammo Muchie (2000) p.146


Prophecy or Accretion“Our future is being driven by convergence. We are assured of this by the nerds and the suits who prime the engines of our contemporary economic growth, at least in the West—the information technology (IT) industry. The convergence they speak of is digital. First there was the bridging of computing with telecommunications. Now telecommunications and the other digital technologies are themselves entwining. In Business @ the Speed of Thought [1], Bill Gates pulls down the formula for successful business at a time of digital convergence and accelerating change which demand fast, accurate information. So he says. This could be a prophecy. It could equally be a strategy for the accretion, that newly fashionable word, of even more economic value for his own business.”

Tony Stevenson (2000), p. 215


Information & Knowledge Society

versus Communicative Community

“ Are we advancing into an information and knowledge economy, as the IT sector would have us believe? Would we prefer a communicative community, one where inert information and knowledge become meaning in order to make sense of our futures? A communicative community would most likely value time for wise reflection more highly than speed of doing business.”



Fanning Unrealistic Expectations

“It seems that the new economy and the new democracy have failed many people, young and old. And, in the case of youth in struggling economies, the media have a further dysfunctional role in having them construct expectations that cannot be realised.”



“we are all migrants” ?

I will argue that globalization involves a trend toward human integration on the basis of the following considerations and provisos:

That globalization is viewed as a long term historical process That the trend towards human integration is viewed not as a

straightforward but as a dialectical process That this perspective is combined with analysis of power and hierarchy That utopian visions of human unity are possibly taken as pointers but

not as shortcuts That since globalization is a complex multidimensional set of

processes (involving concrete processes, changing subjectivities and specific globalizing projects), movement towards human integration also unfolds unevenly across many different fields and dimensions

That diasporas and migration are part of the trend towards human integration and in the process involve ‘boon and bane’ for sending and receiving regions

That from this assessment follows a commitment to policy intervention towards global equity, for without it the notion of human integration would become manipulative or meaningless, hypocritical or rhetorical.

Jan Nederveen Pieterse, 2000, p.386


“What is to come lies in the hands of the humans.”

Old Chinese saying “ Self-expression and self-reflection are the two interrelated dimensions of culture. The commercialization of culture in a commodity economy has torn them apart. A rich, highly spiritual culture has its own value that doesn’t ride on the rails of the commodity economy.Is the problem that governments usually have too-small budgets for culture? This materialistic question may miss the point. What is more important, it seems to me, is to acknowledge culture as having its own value.”

Fusan Zhao (2000), p. 913


The Naked Truth

Stiff competition. Deadbeat customers. Backend hell. Welcome to the real world of Internet porn.


He Continues:“Aldous Huxley once put art, science, and spirituality as the three forms of spirituality. People’s reflections on themselves, their societies, and the world in general, and their probing into the unknown, are spiritual activities. They may influence the political scene, but this influence is never direct; it is through the impact of these reflections on society. In “totalitarian politics” and during the cold war, culture tended to be seen as “soft power” or a political tool of the state; it made the already complicated politics more complicated, and mutilated culture, depriving it of its intrinsic value. In the presentday world of commodity economy, culture is often raped by the market. In countries I am familiar with, whether East or West, many educators are aware of a sword of “political correctness” hanging subtly over their heads. Culture is by nature a stabilizing force in society; but when it is converted into politics, it becomes a destabilizing factor. This is another lesson we can learn from the twentieth century.”

F. Zhao / Futures 31 (1999) 920–921


“a general orientationtoward world reconciliation

and development”“To establish a generally agreed orientation on world peace and development will not be easy. It requires that we learn to adopt a global view when tackling domestic and regional issues, rather than trying to mould the world according to one’s own interests. Difficult as this is, it is probably the only way to reduce international tension and conflict. On the protection of the world’s eco-system, we have already come to realize that the interest of the whole world is also our own interest. In tackling international crime, we are learning the same lesson. We cannot afford to ignore such lessons in facing the present world financial crisis and a possible world economic recession.”F. Zhao / Futures 31 (1999), p. 920


Virtual is Real?“One such robust [chat] community is the famous LamdaMoo run at Xerox Parc, and one of the most famous examples of how seriously VR events can be taken is chronicled in Dibbell's article "Rape in Cyberspace." The incident involved a character, Mr. Bungle, who took advantage of the possibility of "spoofing" on other LamdaMoo characters (i.e. temporarily taking control of their words and actions). By doing so, Mr. Bungle was able to perpetrate acts of fictive sexual assault against the VR denizens of LamdaMoo. No one involved was under the illusion that actual rape had taken place, but it did seem to a number of participants that this attack had been more than theater -- they held that in some sense it had been a kind of attack against their cyborg bodies.” Peter Ludlow , 1999Self and Community OnlineChapter 5 of High Noon on the Electronic Frontier: Conceptual Issues in Cyberspace

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Chat Terminology VT or V/T (Virtual Time) = VR (Virtual Reality)

RT or R/T (Real Time) = RW (Real World)


Cyborgasms Cybersex in online chat rooms is defined here as having two forms:

1) computer mediated interactive masturbation in real time 2) computer mediated telling of interactive sexual stories (in real time) with the intent of arousal

Both of these forms of cybersex are found on America Online. Nguyen, Dan Thu and Jon Alexander.The Coming of Cyberspacetime 1996, p. 116


Ins and outs of chat rooms

“Each room has a name that is meant to attract certain types of people to come chat there. Most users select which room to enter by looking at these lists of room names. Personally, my favourite room is usually called "Ravers," although the name of the room occasionally changes to other rave music related names 11.

Some people who use chat rooms on AOL do so with sex as a primary goal, and the names of chat rooms reflect this. Because AOL staff create them, none of the public chat rooms has a name that is sexual in nature or openly soliciting partners for cybersex or physical sex. Uncensored by AOL, just under half 12 of the member rooms have a name that is sex related. Although I identify almost half of the member's chat rooms as being sex related or solicitations for partners or for sex, I do not believe that every person in every one of those rooms is talking about these topics. As far as I have been able to observe, most of the people in chat rooms with even the most explicit sex related names are not talking about sex. Instead, they talk about their jobs, family, and other interests or hobbies.”

MA Dissertation by Robin B. Hamman Department of Sociology University of Essex,1996

http://www.socio.demon.co.uk/Cyborgasms.html#FNT11

http://www.cybersoc.com/


Separating Research from Virtuality?

“In the message I sent to Rebecca about anonymity, I included a passage about cybersex that I had never felt necessary to send before: "Since I was in that room just having fun and not researching, I can't really ask you about cybersex without it seeming funny, so I won't". Her reply, unbroken by me, went like this:

Rebecca: yeaRebecca: But what about cyber?? Rebecca: I don't mind answering any questions.Rebecca: : )

It was late at night and the caffeine buzz that had hit my body had refused to awaken my brain. In addition to being tired, I had just been talking with Annie who I said earlier I am attracted to. Then Rebecca, who seems overly excited to be interviewed, says "But what about cyber??" The only thing I could do was tremble in my seat. I badly wanted to have cybersex with Rebecca, and could not believe how attracted I felt towards her despite hardly knowing her.”Dissertation by Robin B. Hamman Department of Sociology University of Essex,1996


How Potential Partners Present Themselves

An important part of cybersex is locating a partner. Rebecca looks for partners that she can trust to be who they say they are. She has found that a good way of doing this it to use general interest topic chat rooms instead of romance chat rooms. In the following section, we will again discuss narrow-bandwidth by looking at how Rebecca fights it's effect.

Dissertation by Robin B. Hamman Department of Sociology University of Essex,1996


Cybersex leds to phone sex

"easily half of the people engaged in adult chat are trolling for phone sex."

Virtual City, 1996, 39


Hard to match the virtual?

“Many of the users I have spoken to in the course of this research trade photographs by post, decreasing their reliance on computers for information about those they meet online. Many people, like Rebecca and Alison seen in this paper, exchange voice phone calls with other users, once again decreasing their reliance on computers. Some users, of which we see no examples of in this paper but who I have seen many examples of in the course of this research, arrange real life meetings with their cybersex partners and online friends.Meeting outside of the narrow-bandwidth space of AOL chat rooms for the first time can be difficult. In face to face meetings between users of AOL chat rooms, the online anonymity which has allowed experimentation with the selves no longer can protect them. Compounding this problem, users expect other users to be the same as their online self when they meet off-line. This leads to disappointment and broken dreams.”Dissertation by Robin B. Hamman Department of Sociology University of Essex,1996


Separating Research from Virtuality?” contd.

I thought for a second about Rebecca's articulate words, a fantasy was born, but I managed to stop myself and tell Rebecca that she had shocked me by asking that. I asked for a moment to regroup my thoughts. After a few seconds of thinking, I explained that I had to keep the line between my researcher self and my pleasure self separate. She responded to this by saying that she could tell me "yucky stuff too". I became confused and asked her if she wanted to tell me "yucky stuff" for my research or if she wanted to tell me about it for fun. Then she asked me if she was telling me her personal details because I was doing research or for some other reason. This went back and forth for many lines until I told her that she had scared me out of doing the interview, intimidated me even, by asking me so abruptly to have cybersex with her.Dissertation by Robin B. Hamman Department of Sociology University of Essex,1996


Definition of a Cyborg“People who have cybersex in online chat rooms are cyborgs. Without AOL chat rooms, they are unable to experiment with their own selves. The boundary between the human and the machine becomes blurred because the users of AOL chat rooms are no longer able to be whole without their prosthesis.”



Cyborg? “Without a computer, Rebecca would not be able to freely

access her sexual self in the same way that she can within the narrow-bandwidth space of AOL. She would be unable to experiment and learn from this sexual self. This sexual self is one of many selves which make up Rebecca's "multiplicity of selves" -- her whole self. The online, sexual self of Rebecca is a part of her whole self. Without computer mediated communication, Rebecca would be cut off from a part of herself. Without computers, she could not reach her potential as a human. She could not be fully human. Using the prosthesis of the computer, Rebecca is able to be more human than she could without the prosthesis. Rebecca is part human, part machine, and without the machine, she would remain only partly human. The boundary between the human and the machine has blurred. Rebecca has become a cyborg.”



Festival of Projection "What is really being debated in the discourses surrounding a cyborg future are contemporary disputes concerning gender and sexuality, with the future providing a blank slate, or a blank screen, onto which we can project our fascination and fears..."

Springer; 1995, 387)

.


Misrepresentation “Allucquere Rosanne Stone 25 tells the following story of gender

presentation which I summarise here. Julie is a paraplegic, mute, and severely disfigured New York neuro-psychologist who set up a discussion group on CompuServe. Or so it seemed to the thousands of CompuServe users who never suspected that Julie was really Sanford Lewin, a male psychiatrist. Sanford first opened a user account on CompuServe in 1982 using the username "Doctor". While Sanford was chatting online one day, he realised that he had been mistaken as a woman psychiatrist. Soon, Sanford opened a second account under the name of Julie Graham. Using the Julie personae, Sanford was able to help many women who he felt he would not have been able to help as a man. The charade lasted a long period of time until Sanford began to get nervous over the questions of a few women users with disabilities who, although they had rejoiced at Julie's previous successes, had begun to question the authenticity of the Julie's story. Sanford Lewin revealed himself as "Julie", and although news spread fast across the net, the "dismantling" of the Julie personae took several months. People were unwilling to believe that a man was able to present himself as a woman with so much success for so long. Stone states that, "the narrow-bandwidth mode of the nets interfered with the chat participants' warranting Julie to [Sanford] Lewin, so that even when they became suspicious they had to fall back on non-physical cues that failed them." (Stone, 1995a, 70 - 79)”

In Dissertation by Robin B. Hamman Department of Sociology University of Essex,1996

http://www.cybersoc.com/


Fantasy or reality?

Consider first, our online selves. It might seem odd to suppose that there is a distinct notion of self which one has when online. Isn't the self identical to the physical body? And therefore isn't it somewhat silly to talk about there being selves in cyber-space? Isn't it rather the case that our selves (since they are identical to our physical bodies) remain in chairs typing on terminals? So even if we are MUD-ing, our selves remain in the real world (RW) and we are engaged in communications with others in which we create fictional characters. Right? Surely it would be a blunder to say that these fictional characters are in any way to be identified with out true selves -- surely that is just a conflation of fiction with reality! Right? Well, matters are not so simple. Peter Ludlow , 1999


Release from repression?

“Rob uses the prosthesis of the computer to electronically alter his gender. Part of Rob's multiplicity of selves acts as a woman online. Rob is a transsexual when he acts as a woman online. He is also a cyborg because he would not be free to experiment with his transsexual self outside of the narrow-bandwidth space of AOL chat rooms. Rob uses his transsexual self to hurt people. This is not because this self is transsexual, but because Rob has not only lost the inhibitions that hide his transsexual self in real life, he has also lost the inhibitions that keep him from hurting people in real life. I do not have enough information to conclude that Rob hurts people because he has had to repress his transsexual self in real life for so long. This does, however, seem to me a logical suggestion for further inquiry.”



We are our social relations

if we take seriously a number of contemporary theories which regard the self as socially constructed in some sense. So, for example, such theories would reject the broadly Cartesian view that there is a core portion of me which is situated in my body and utilizes my body to interact with a distinct external world. Instead, according to such theories, the self does not come first but is rather the product of social mediation. This is not a simple point about nature vs. nurture. It is rather a deeper point about how the self is defined by the social relations in which it participates. Peter Ludlow , 1999


Well? What do you Think?

“If the bulk of my social contacts are in VR rather than the RW, then why wouldn't VR have greater claim to the construction of my gender? That is, if social institutions determine gender and if the bulk of the social institutions in which I participate are VR institutions, then why isn't my VR gender my "real" gender?” Peter Ludlow , 1999


Projecting vt virtual-time Posibilities/Fantasies“As noted in Reid's piece on "Identity and the Cyborg

Body", VR gender possibilities are substantially more complex than the simple binary opposition male/female. More generally, the kinds of forms we may take on to represent ourselves are virtually unlimited. Thus we have the existence of cyberspace locales like FurryMuck, where participants create characters that are, basically, furry animals. Of course, no one is claiming that by building a character that looks like a woodchuck one "becomes" a woodchuck. Rather, the claim is that by describing your character you are projecting certain properties to the other MUD denizens. Your true properties depend not on the definition you provide, but rather on how you are "viewed" by the members of the MUD.” Peter Ludlow , 1999Self and Community OnlineChapter 5 of High Noon on the Electronic Frontier: Conceptual Issues in Cyberspace





Transgendered in VR (Virtual Reality) = transgendered In the RW? (Real World)

“The claim is not that if a RW male temporarily assumes female gender in his VR character he will become, ipso facto, a female. To the contrary it would be necessary for the individual to be accepted as a female in his VR community, and this would no doubt require a very extended period of enculturation. But once that is accomplished we might seriously raise questions about the actual gender of the individual.”Peter Ludlow , 1999


Five IT Management Eras1.Accounting Era -- through early 1960s --

focus on accounting, batch transactions2.Operational Era -- mid 1960s to mid

1970s -- on-line systems dealing with critical operational transactions

3.Information Era -- late 1970s to early 1980s -- focus on use of information for decision-making -- emergence of end-user computingDr AC Leonard (2002)


Five IT Management Eras (continued)4.The Wired Society -- mid 1980s to mid

1990s -- development of systems for competitive advantage, often including linkages to customers and suppliers

5.The Global Wired Society -- late 1990s until ? -- using IT, especially the Internet, to link with customers and businesses around the worldDr AC Leonard (2002)


The ‘righteous war on terrorism fills the

vacuum“There is now only one ideology which disguises itself as nature. Once again we have a false trans- cendence of bringing together culture and nature, in a totally phoney way, where you can establish a more efficient control mechanism. The net can be controlled from outside, through fear, through terror. The net is extremely suseptible to terror. Because the net is a religious phenomenon and religion is inherently violent, the sacred is inherently violent, and invariably both are involved in fear, in terror. That's why the net is perfect ground, "Grund," in German, for the passion play which is going to occur within five years, maybe within the next five minutes. The net can be controlled from outside, and therefore, resistance must be organized from outside. So far, we've only had virtual resistance, and actually that is no more than a spectacle of resistance. If we don't organize on the basis of politics, and of economy, then the net has no future as a space for human freedom. No future.”Peter Lamborne Wilson (1995)


Is cybersex cheating?“I spend a lot of time online looking at sexy pictures, reading erotica, and talking dirty to women. Do I have to tell my real-life partner?” This all depends on what you and your partner have agreed to as far as the terms of your relationship. If you're both fine with the other masturbating to a dirty novel or a porn mag or movie, your time spent online shouldn't be a problem. The line sometimes gets crossed when people start having cybersex with another human being, especially when it's the same person time and again rather than a chance encounter with a stranger. Relationships can develop online that rival real-life intimacy and it's easy to see how these may be considered a threat to your real-life partner. Your best bet is to talk about your activities with your partner. Rather than asking for approval, think of it more as a sharing - an opportunity to increase your intimacy by trying new things together. Show him or her some of your favorite sites and see if it doesn't spur a sexy encounter. You can even try going into a chat room together and picking someone up for cybersex. If she or he is not into it, then you'll still have the opportunity to say, "Well, I really enjoy this as an addition to our sex life, but I'll keep it private if it doesn't do anything for you." Q&A with Deb Levine MA- MyPleasure.comAuthor of “The Joy of Cybersex”


There is always more – that we do not , cannot and/or will not know

One cannot know everything

The Kabalistic principle of the Ein Soph

Admits and warns of :That which is unable to be known

Never ending story


One cannot know everythingthe enlightenment has reached its Limits

Therefore the vacuum the African Renaissance is challenged to fill

Pregnant with hope


Arrogance of Modernity/Globalisati

on etcIn fact, my philosophy does not allow of the fiction which has been so cleverly devised by the professors of philosophy and has become indispensable to them, namely the fiction of a reason that knows, perceives, and apprehends immediately and absolutely

Arthur Schopenhauer(1844)The World as Will and Representation


Walter Truett Anderson

Life in the First Global Civilization Westview Press 2002

Globalization/Anti-globalization, right/left scenario


Gaddafi “Libya - not South Africa - is the new Eldorado for millions of black western and central Africans: Gaddafi, the Great Survivor, prefers to seduce African youth with economic opportunities rather than with bombs.”Pepe Escobar, Asian Times, 2001


If Ibn Khaldun were alive today, he would tell us that American civilization - like the Caliphates, or the Umayyad dynasty of his time - has expanded to almost limitless power. And when you reach Absolute Power, the only way is down. Not only the eminent Muslim reached this conclusion, but also Western icons like Gibbon - talking about the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - and more recently Professor Paul Kennedy, who excelled in his examination of the concept of overextension of great powers. In a fruitful "dialogue among civilizations" - an Iranian idea - Ibn Khaldun and Professor Kennedy would probably agree that America is now overextended. And they would certainly agree that civilizations do decline. America still is by all means a civilization of boundless, fascinating energy and dynamism. But it must beware of hubris - the essential element in Greek tragedy, the cultural foundation of Western civilization. Unfortunately, some dreamers of New Imperialism and assorted Pentagon generals have never heard of Sophocles. They'd better get their act together before they plunge America into another heart of darkness. Pepe Escobar, Asian Times 2001


Global Apartheid The six richest individuals in the

world are 100-million times wealthier than the world's poorest 600-million

15% of the world's population

currently consumes 85% of the earth's resources.

Globally this is on its way to destroying the earth's natural capacity within 50 years

Dismantling Global ApartheidDavid Macfarlane | Johannesburg


Northern Straightjacket

"The global dynamic we all live in is akin to a global system of apartheid. In this system the global rich, consisting of the majority of northern citizens as well as southern elites operate in an effective 'one dollar one vote' global 'dictatorship'."The southern countries are in a " northern straightjacket," Espey says, pointing to the implementation of structural adjustment policies that lead to the degradation of natural resources and increased poverty. "This ongoing injustice and non-sustainability cannot be brought to an end without the dismantling of the system of global apartheid,“

Mensah Frimpong, program manager at the Group for Environmental Monitoring (GEM), outlined the arguments detailed in a discussion paper by GEM director Dr Quentin Espey entitled The Potential of South-North Civil Society Relationships to Dismantle Global Apartheid: A Prerequisite for Global Sustainability and Justice.


Espey’s four appeals to the north's enlightened self-interest:

Climate change and the negative impacts if greenhouse gas emissions are not attained. "This is a human security issue to everyone created by over-consumption in the north and global inequity.“

Refugee and immigration crisis from south to north. This is increasing and will continue to do so, creating a "quality of life security concern" to the north. But if the quality of life in southern countries were improved, people would "not want to do an unnatural thing and move from their homes" -- largely a poverty and inequity issue.

Biodiversity loss. The link between poverty and biodiversity loss is conclusive and can be illustrated. The current global paradigm will contribute to the unsustainable use of the world's natural capital and its eventual collapse.

Global terrorism. Espey "categorically" does not promote this, but "there is no doubt that poverty in the south and the clash between the dominant Western civilisation and other subservient civilisations is fertile breeding ground for global terrorism. This is a security issue for the north and is already being acknowledged by leaders in the north."


Note: The pic is a westrly shot of Johannesburg as viewed from the ‘new class’ precinct, (Observatory to Troyville) on the east of the city. It’s the majestic view the new randwomen and men have with their sundowners, from their hilltop havens, after a days, should we say, work

“Fight poverty as you fought apartheid”.“The same international solidarity that helped to end apartheid was needed to address the global divide between rich and poor “.

Nitin Desai, Secretary-GeneralWorld Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)At the Summit August 26, 2002


CHIEF SEATTLE “Your dead cease to love you and the land

of their nativity as soon as they pass the portals of the tomb and wander away beyond the stars. They are soon forgotten and never return. Our dead never forget this beautiful world that gave them being. They still love its verdant valleys, its murmuring rivers, its magnificent mountains, sequestered vales and verdant lined lakes and bays, and ever yearn in tender fond affection over the lonely hearted living, and often return from the happy hunting ground to visit, guide, console, and comfort them.”

He Concludes “Let him be just and deal kindly with my

people, for the dead are not powerless. Dead, did I say? There is no death, only a change of worlds.”

1854 ORATION"


Mestizos “Perhaps a better term for mestizos is bridge people who, because of their unique experience of coming to terms with the conflict that created their culture, can be bridges over the walls of prejudice.

On the tree of humanity, there are many leaves and flowers, but to paraphrase Cuban patriot Jose Marti, our trunk will always be indigenous.”


Fourth World ''A convenient shorthand for the Fourth World would be internationally unrecognized nations. These are the 5,000 to 6000 nations representing a third of the world's population whose descendants maintain a distinct political culture within the states which claim their territories. In all cases the Fourth World nation is engaged in a struggle to maintain or gain some degree of sovereignty over their national homeland.'' Richard Griggs 1992


Cultures are Resilient The changes in Japanese society in the course of

modernization have attracted much research and discussion. It has often been argued that war brought a fundamental change in the Japanese. It might be truer to argue that since the circumstances and supports of life in Japan have altered radically, ideas and attitudes to life have in turn changed, just as clothes are changed with the seasons. But a superficial change of outlook, as facile as changes in fashion, has not the slightest effect on the firm persistence of the basic nature and core of personal relations and group dynamics.

While the outlook of Japanese society has suffered drastic changes over the past hundred years, the basic social grammar has hardly been affected. Here is an example of industrialization and the importation of Western culture not effecting changes in the basic cultural structure.

Japanese Society


Globalisation colides with education

The Impending McMorphosis of the Global Professor By M.O. Thirunarayanan


Impacts


Technology Transfer ModelAn alternative framework approaches the impacts of information and communications technology from a technology transfer perspective.


-isms which obstruct the process of development in jungle communities: Leading Nicaraguan rural advisor

lack of will to change one’s attitudes and customs (conformism)

lack of initiative to resolve one’s problems (fatalism)

lack of responsibility; supposition that the government and development institutions should always help (parasitism)

magic traditions and beliefs (irrationalism) lack of education (analphabetism)


Through such a representation, the local forest-edge communities were constructed as spaces of backwardness and their settlers as maladaptive parasites, imprisoned by their superstitions.


Anja NygrenA strategy to empower local knowledges requires an understanding not only of the hegemonic discourses authorizing essentialist representations of knowledges, but also of the shifting and contested nature of local knowledges, which are themselves derived from discrepant epistemologies and practices. For us as anthropologists, this means we are called upon to pay greater heed to the interpretations of the people we study. It also demands that we welcome these alternative ways of conceptualization which now have no voice or which simply are not heard in contemporary scientific and developmentalist discourses. This at best offers us a much better understanding of marginalized people’s struggles to reconfigure their knowledges and to reconstruct their life with meaning in today’s networks of knowledge and power.1995


Obstinate otherness ‘It Takes a Serb to Know a Serb’ Uncovering the roots of obstinate otherness in Serbia

Mattijs van de Port Anthropology and Sociology Centre, University of Amsterdam


Serb to know a serb

The exercise has highlighted that people in other societies carry with them experiences that are alien to our conceptual and emotional frames of reference and I have suggested that this awareness on their part may foster the view that it takes a Serb to know a Serb.


Upanishads “Let us begin with the Upanishadic insights where it is believed that reality is beyond our categorical formulation and comprehension. Whatever categories and concepts we use to make sense of reality, they are not adequate to provide us with a total picture. The Upanishadic insights refer to the simultaneous need for concept formation as well as the abandonment of concepts. The first exercise is an exercise of ‘superimposition’ of concepts and forms upon reality and, according to the Upanishads and Shankara, this superimposition is a manifestation of avidya (ignorance of concrete reality, true self) (Puligandla, 1996). It is only when one fully and thoroughly disengages oneself from superimposition, that one opens oneself to an experience of reality.”Ananta Kumar Giri (1998)Madras Institute of Development Studies


Cultural Restraints on ManagementTo illustrate, a Saudi Arabian public manager’s resort to disciplinary measures to control his sub ordinates’ performance and behaviour is severely restricted by the civil service code and the strong traditional inhibition on causing someone to lose his face or means of livelihood. Consequently, he is obliged to try in formal methods of persuasion and social pressures before turning to punitive steps. In assuming the role of the paternalistic leader, the manager is expected to look after the financial, social and professional welfare of his sub ordinates who will return this in the form of personal loyalty, obedience and acceptable standards of behaviour and performance.Hamid S. Atiyyah, 1999


Fukayama


Stages in the introduction of information technologyThe Stages Theory: This model seeks to explain the process of introduction of information technology in terms of stages:

Stage I, Initiation: in which generally a new technology is introduced into low-level operational business processes;

Stage II, Contagion: the learning curve moves upward sharply as the organization experiments widely with the new technology;

Stage III, Control: the transition occurs as budget increases exceed revenue growth, and become a control issue for senior management which intercedes to reduce growth of the use of the IT application, and squeeze out slack;

Stage IV, Integration: management strives for a proper balance between slack and control, and the new technology is integrated into the firms business practices.

The model also takes note of the applications portfolio for the technology, the resources (money, technology, people) needed to apply the ICTs in business, management, and user awareness.


Internet Impact Framework


“The New Imperialism” Syria: Bashar Assad may not be a paragon of democracy, but he is more

interested in education and information technology than bombs. Libya - not South Africa - is the new Eldorado for millions of black western and central Africans: Gaddafi, the Great Survivor, prefers to seduce African youth with economic opportunities rather than with bombs. Iran is torn between hardliners and moderates, but the young generation is fully behind Khatami and his "dialogue of civilizations" - a splendidly articulated cultural platform that strikes a chord all over the developing world. Billions of people in Southeast Asia, China, South Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East , Eastern Europe or even Western Europe were not consulted about the designs of the New Imperialism. But it is no coincidence that the New Imperialism is being proposed exactly at this historical juncture. The current Pentagon production on the word's screens has turned out to be essentially a relentless bombing of innocent, starving civilians as punishment for terrorist attacks. It is widely regarded - not only in the Muslim world - as a very expensive and ultimately appalling exercise in futility. Apart from America, public support around the world is vanishing at an alarming rate.


Culture futures Oswald Spengler's Decline of the West is much more generative than the great historian, who read him closely, acknowledge. Nutty poetic profound. Plato knew that Athens would fail but yet would be known till the end of historical time. We like art and stories and author nice things. We learn to deal with each other. It is worth keeping the distinction between culture of the society, and high culture of the best among us.

The future of our culture(s) should get our attention and creativity. It is the garden of our delight and the garden where we grow our children.


Overextended In their seminal book, "Empire," Tony Negri and Michael Hardt argue that the

process of globalization has generated a universal and oppressive New Imperialism - but stress that a real humanist alternative to imperialism and war is more than possible. Ibn Khaldun, a Muslim historian of the 14th century, would agree. He was not deterministic like Huntington, Fukuyuma and assorted cohorts. He said that civilizations follow a process - they go through different stages. Centuries before Adam Smith, Ibn Khaldun came up with an extremely sophisticated analysis of free trade, the role of the market, and the rule of law. The Muqaddimah, the introduction to his immense Universal History, is a prodigy of humanism: nothing remotely similar to the intolerant Islam of the Taliban or the confrontational Islam of Al-Qaeda. If Ibn Khaldun were alive today, he would tell us that American civilization - like the Caliphates, or the Umayyad dynasty of his time - has expanded to almost limitless power. And when you reach Absolute Power, the only way is down. Not only the eminent Muslim reached this conclusion, but also Western icons like Gibbon - talking about the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - and more recently Professor Paul Kennedy, who excelled in his examination of the concept of overextension of great powers. In a fruitful "dialogue among civilizations" - an Iranian idea - Ibn Khaldun and Professor Kennedy would probably agree that America is now overextended. And they would certainly agree that civilizations do decline. America still is by all means a civilization of boundless, fascinating energy and dynamism. But it must beware of hubris - the essential element in Greek tragedy, the cultural foundation of Western civilization. Unfortunately, some dreamers of New Imperialism and assorted Pentagon generals have never heard of Sophocles. They'd better get their act together before they plunge America into another heart of darkness.


Agility This low-intensity/low-density form of warfare has an information signature, albeit not one that our intelligence infrastructure and other government agencies are optimized to detect. In all cases, terrorists have left detectable clues that are generally found after an attack.

To fight terrorism, we need to create a new infrastructure and new information technology aimed at exposing foreign terrorists and their activities and support systems. This is a tremendously difficult problem, because terrorists understand how vulnerable they are and seek to hide their specific plans and capabilities1. Terrorist’s use of camouflage and deception reduces their signature and introduces great uncertainty in the interpretation of any data collected. Once an information leak is discovered, terrorists can adapt quickly to stop it, either by changing tactics or re-organizing in some way.


Homogenization ofHomogenization ofEven champions of globalization increasingly fret that it may damage or destroy the diversity that makes the human race so fascinating, leaving nothing but homogenized, least-common-denominator forms of creativity. In the wake of September 11, there is a new urgency to these concerns. The fury of the terrorists - and of the alarming number of people around the world who viewed the attacks as a deserved comeuppance for an arrogant, out-of-control superpower - is sparked in part by a sense that America is imposing its lifestyle on countries that don't want it. And one needn't condone mass murder to believe that a new world order that leaves every place on the globe looking like a California strip mall will make us all poorer.

The Ever-Expanding, Profit-Maximizing, Cultural- Imperialist, Wonderful World of DisneyThe serious business of selling all-American fun.By Jonathan Weber (2002)


Strategic Information Warconcerns hearts and minds No company conveys more powerfully the image of a

conquering cultural army than Walt Disney. Its founder was a true-blue patriot who saw himself as a proselytizer for the values of the American heartland. The company's products and services - unlike, say, fast-food hamburgers or sugary soft drinks - are not merely symbolic of the American way of life, but contain as part of their essence a set of beliefs about good and evil and human aspiration. Disney, moreover, has throughout its history been extremely shrewd about building mutually reinforcing products across many different kinds of media, with theme parks and TV shows, movies and merchandise, all working together in service of the Disney way.The Ever-Expanding, Profit-Maximizing, Cultural-Imperialist, Wonderful World of DisneyThe serious business of selling all-American fun.By Jonathan Weber (2002)


"If it comes from outside China, it's going to be "better than what comes from inside, …You just know

it." Visitor to a Shenzhen theme park.

Disney's drive for the China market shows how this machine can work overseas. Seen from the outside, the strategy seems quite savvy. It began with elemental Disney - its cartoons - which first aired on Chinese television in the mid-1980s, just as the country was opening up. Chinese entrepreneurs kicked in a flood of pirated videos and counterfeit merchandise, which did nothing for Disney's bottom line but had the effect of spreading its characters at viral speed.

Profit-Maximizing, Cultural-

Imperialism


Drug ProfitsThe annual profits from drug trafficking (cannabis, cocaine, heroin) are estimated at $300-500bn (not to mention the rapidly mushrooming synthetic drugs), that is 8% to 10% of world trade (4). Computer piracy has a turnover in excess of $200bn, counterfeit goods $100bn, European Community budget fraud $10-15bn, animal smuggling $20bn, etc. In all, and counting only activities with a transnational dimension, including the white slave trade, the world's gross criminal product totals far above $1,000bn a year, nearly 20% of world trade. Even allowing for overheads (production and suppliers, intermediaries and corruption, investment expenditure, management costs, losses from seizures and crackdowns) amounting to roughly 50% of turnover, that still leaves annual profits of $500bn. Over ten years that makes $5,000bn, more than three times the foreign currency reserves of all the central banks (5), one quarter of the capitalisation of the world's top five stock markets and ten times that of Paris (6).


Cybersex = ‘tiny sex’

Turkle, who recently wrote a novel titled Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet, focuses attention on the nuances of role playing and conducting romantic interactions online. She has also explored the phenomenon of cybersex and cybermasturbation, which is also known as "tiny sex."

She discovered through her own experimentation that these acts can quickly become intimate experiences shared with another human being; one doesn't have to feel as if he or she is all alone at a computer console.

"I think as people realize that there's the presence of another person, they're going to be much more cautious about 'tiny sex,' " Turkle says. "People will start to experience 'tiny sex' as 'tiny lovemaking' and not as 'tiny one-night stand' but 'tiny involvement with another person' -- smart grownups are cautious about who they sleep with precisely for this reason."


NegroponteNegroponte sees the next billion users of the Net coming from "the developing world." He's committed to that vision. "Putting computers in schools worldwide is my new preoccupation," he says.


Nicholas Negroponte

Founder and director of MIT's cutting-edge media laboratory -- as well as a professor, lecturer, author, and pioneer of the Internet -- Negroponte sees no end to the Web's popularity.

He was there at the birth of the Internet in the 1960s and the inception of multimedia in the 1970s. He holds two professional architecture degrees and he founded MIT's Architecture Machine Group in 1968. And his think tank and lab paved the way for modern, user-friendly computer formats.

Negroponte has settled into a reflective phase in his career. He talks of forgiving arrogance and "silliness" when he sees it, and of his newfound respect for Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who he says seems to be maturing in his job.


Sherry Turkle The MIT professor of sociology reports

on the unhealthy ramifications of such online follies as an 80-year-old man carrying on a year-long affair with a New Jersey man by pretending to be a girl from Tennessee.

Is this anecdote comical? Perhaps. But Turkle believes serious problems could have developed from this situation.

What would have happened if the 80-year-old man had been an underage boy pulling a prank? Now you're talking about soliciting a minor, says Turkle. What about the guilt and shame the New Jersey man would have felt if he had made sexual advances toward a young child?


Psychology in Cyberspace

What is the role of the psychologist and other applied social scientists in this new millennium of the internet? If new digital life forms are evolving, will traditional methods for clinical and community interventions work? In some cases, yes. We can build on and adapt strategies from the past. But as I suggest in my article on psychotherapy in this issue, new models may be needed. As social scientists attempting to improve psychological well-being within and via cyberspace, our methods need to evolve innovatively to match the needs of the new digital life forms. Combining cognitive, clinical, and community psychology with human factors engineering, we need to think in terms of software interface, communication channels, and networks. We need to recognize that what we traditionally thought of as a "case" - a person or a group of people - is changing. Just as the identity of a person or group can be altered, sifted, and sorted in a fascinating variety of ways online, so too can the roles and interventions of the cyberologist.


Too easy to disappear Even with very good conditions, an e-mail group over time may lose its energy. In general, online groups tend to have a short shelf life. They tend to fizzle out with messages becoming few and far between, and then stopping completely - often without anyone saying good-bye. As clinicians well know, people tend to avoid termination. Online, where there are none of the usual boundaries of time and space and no face-to-face contact to contend with, it's almost too easy to disappear without bidding farewell.


Particularity’s struggle Politically, the 20th century was a battle between left and right. In the 21st century the contest will pit localists against those struggling to manage globalization. The former will seek control over the local economy; the latter will continue to see globalization as inevitable as gravity. Their role will be to attempt to make it a better balance for all of us.

Wole Akande

On the Frontiers of Globalisation: Zero de Conduit (2003)

Documents

Transcript of On the Frontiers of Globalisation: Zero de Conduit (2003)