Comment Remember basic class issues here (Score 1) 155
Brin use of this village metaphor is really annoying. He makes it sound like modern industrial societies are just a bunch of neigbors of relatively equal power.
The reality is that the hyper-rich and their corporations set the social agenda. One of the only protections working class folks have against a legal system designed to keep them in the service of the hyper-rich is privacy and anonymity. I can smoke pot in the back of a building if no one sees me, I can have sex on my lunch break, I can talk to my coworkers about how to stop the boss from instituting a new fucked up policy--as long as he can't see us.
The assumption that recipricol surveilance will translate to a "good village" model, fails to acknowlege that ours is a society of elites and plebes.
I hate all these neo-libertarian fucks like Wired magazine who act like technology disolves class relations. Wired regularly publishes these glowing articles about how you and your boss will soon live in a happy world because the Internet will create global harmony. Just because the ruling class is so strong that they are hard to fight doesn't mean that they are our friend. Socialists are right even if they've lost alot of battles.
I should mention as well, that working class organizing, such as social change movements and non-beaurocratic unionism, still are our most effective tools to promote quality of life and personal freedoms. Even if you can't beat the ruling class, you can certainly kick the fuck out of them over a specific issue. Like cameras on every corner for example.
And fuck reactionary assholes like Brin who says we should just let it happen. Although I do like his idea of publishing the abortion-doc-killers names.
Corin Drummond
The reality is that the hyper-rich and their corporations set the social agenda. One of the only protections working class folks have against a legal system designed to keep them in the service of the hyper-rich is privacy and anonymity. I can smoke pot in the back of a building if no one sees me, I can have sex on my lunch break, I can talk to my coworkers about how to stop the boss from instituting a new fucked up policy--as long as he can't see us.
The assumption that recipricol surveilance will translate to a "good village" model, fails to acknowlege that ours is a society of elites and plebes.
I hate all these neo-libertarian fucks like Wired magazine who act like technology disolves class relations. Wired regularly publishes these glowing articles about how you and your boss will soon live in a happy world because the Internet will create global harmony. Just because the ruling class is so strong that they are hard to fight doesn't mean that they are our friend. Socialists are right even if they've lost alot of battles.
I should mention as well, that working class organizing, such as social change movements and non-beaurocratic unionism, still are our most effective tools to promote quality of life and personal freedoms. Even if you can't beat the ruling class, you can certainly kick the fuck out of them over a specific issue. Like cameras on every corner for example.
And fuck reactionary assholes like Brin who says we should just let it happen. Although I do like his idea of publishing the abortion-doc-killers names.
Corin Drummond
