<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1561" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi Michel, Trebor, Brian...</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Great debate and postings and I have decided to
post one of<FONT face=Arial size=2> my recent texts for which I think fits quite
nicely into this debate. Originally it was sent as a contribution for the
book Creativity for All, but since there were no news about it for quite a while
from the my-ci list I decided to put it on this list as a small
contribution to the ongoing debate... </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2>I absolutely agree with
what Michel wrote, I am just the one of Them:</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2><EM>On a deeper level,
socially, we are less and less in a pure situation of workers/consumers that are
exploited by an external force, but rather, we move in and out of situations,
consuming one day, created user content the other; working in peer production
one day, as free lancer the other day, as employee the third.
<BR></EM></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2>This is my original
text:</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2>wish you creative
reading</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2>Ksenija Berk<BR></DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><FONT face="Times New Roman"><FONT
size=3>Creative Industries and Immaterial Labour on a Verge of a Nervous
Breakdown<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
/><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><FONT face="Times New Roman">The
question of whether humanity has a predilection toward the good is preceded by
the question whether there exists an event that can be explained in no other way
than by that moral disposition. An event such as revolution. Kant says that this
phenomenon (of revolution) can no longer be ignored in human history because it
has revealed the existence in human nature of a disposition and a faculty toward
the good, which until now no politics has ever discovered in the course of
events. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></I></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><FONT face="Times New Roman">Friedrich
Nietzsche. Multitude, p. 189.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></I></P>
<P class=q
style="MARGIN: auto 0cm; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-no-proof: yes">When spring
unleashed its charms in Chicago 1886, nobody expected it to be so intensely hot
as it revealed later, perhaps slightly too hot for some tastes and time of year.
On May 1st, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labour Unions came up with a
resolution stating that eight hours would constitute a legal day's work on
international level and called for a general strike until the goal is achieved.
Some riots occurred, and when suddenly a bomb was thrown from somewhere into the
police forces. The police fired into the crowd and several men were killed and
injured. After the Congress of 2<SUP>nd </SUP>International, held in Paris, the
1<SUP>st</SUP> of May has become an International Workers' Day as a
commemoration of the events in Chicago. Despite of Chicago riots, May 1st is
still not recognized as a remembrance day in the so-called <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">cradle of democracy </I></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">–<SPAN style="mso-no-proof: yes"> USA,
in South Africa and Canada. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><FONT face="Times New Roman">Nowadays,
more then hundred years later, we are faced with similar problems, even though
the circumstances are slightly different. Today capitalism is just another name
for modernity, as Lyotard</FONT><A title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1"
href="#_ftn1" name=_ftnref1><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="mso-special-character: footnote"><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[1]</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> figured out some time ago, and contemporary workers'
scene is mostly predominated by hegemony of immaterial work. Just a century ago,
the fight for an eight hour workday was fought by manual workers in factories,
today the same battle is fought on the other side – with immaterial, creative
workers and their unsuspectedly stretching working day. The universal economical
strategy successfully positions the professions of the so-called third
sector</FONT><A title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2" href="#_ftn2"
name=_ftnref2><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="mso-special-character: footnote"><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[2]</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> – our dear and beloved Creative Industries – onto the
map of neo-liberal capitalism. Instead of commodities, the immaterial workers
produce immaterial goods as information, knowledge, ideas, images, relations …
However, the third sector of industry is a new kind of working class if we
briefly and quite superficially borrow this term from Marxist theories; however,
it is quite unhomogeneous and diversely structured. We can find significant
members of this, let's call it workers' class, among the darlings of capital,
who proudly wear the title of most fashionable professions of our age, for
example creative workers in advertising, fashion and entertainment industries,
various counsellors, portfolio managers, lawyers, doctors … On the other side of
the paycheck list, very similar to those who work in factories, yet still in the
class of creative workers, there are almost infinite numbers of those who work
in arts. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><FONT face="Times New Roman">It was a
long time ago when only those who work in emergency units as rescue teams,
plumbers, dustmen and other watchers and maintainers of our society were always
on duty. Immaterial worker has inevitably become a para-special, mobile unit,
always on the move, always prepared on action, with a completely new way of
living and structuring social relationships. Rough separation on working day and
free time does not exist anymore, because you never know when you will get any
new project. An eight-hour working day, as I'm writing this now in a year of
2006, exists only in textbooks or as a very cynical comment in our everyday
life. When you get the work, there is no free time left until it is done, it
doesn't matter how long it will take. A day, a month, two years … For example, I
only have a few days to translate this article from Slovenian into English, so
it is prepared to be published, if I am the lucky one to be chosen. I do not
have a permanent working place, as a digital nomad I'm constantly running from
one computer device to the other, from one institution to another. We – the
immaterial workers – never actually go home. We live in our jobs and our jobs
live with us in the same single apartment, although, imagine – they do not even
pay the rent. As constantly on the move, nobody expects us to have a permanent
place or time to work. Everything has become fluid around us, so fluid that we
are under a constant thread of drowning since there is no one left to rescue us
anymore. The borders of our intimate world are fusing with the world of
computer-mediated technologies, our bodies, equipped with the latest
achievements of designed technologies are becoming more and more cyborg-like. As
Howard Slater pointed out in one of his texts, we may not all be bourgeouis, but
we are all increasingly managers of the animate and inanimate.</FONT><A title=""
style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3" href="#_ftn3" name=_ftnref3><SPAN
class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN style="mso-special-character: footnote"><SPAN
class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[3]</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></A><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><o:p></o:p></I></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><FONT face="Times New Roman">All forms
of labour are subsumed in the reign of capital</FONT><A title=""
style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4" href="#_ftn4" name=_ftnref4><SPAN
class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN style="mso-special-character: footnote"><SPAN
class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[4]</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> and the one thing they have in common is a common
potential of dissent against its despotic power. Capital never asks anyone how
does he/she feel today, or if you have enough power, strength and resources to
successfully complete your tasks. If you are not able to, fine as well. It is a
take-it-or-leave-it-world. You have the right to participate as well as to say
let’s go and leave it all behind. There are more than enough hungry mouth
knocking on the notorious front door of Capitalism, tired and exhausted of
ever-repeating jobs in the name of glory and higher goals with minimal wages.
They are more than ready to work in a cruel world of the Empire</FONT><A
title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5" href="#_ftn5" name=_ftnref5><SPAN
class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN style="mso-special-character: footnote"><SPAN
class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[5]</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> as part of multitude workers, as seen by Negri and
Hardt. And what is the essence that connects them? Instability and complete
neo-liberalization of labour. Stable and long-term labour contracts practically
do not exist anymore. We are all on part-time contracts and very short-time
projects. Flexibility and mobility are so called slogans of immaterial workers,
but frankly, they are just another name for surveillance and punishment in a
time when contemporary sport of non-paying the contracts on time is crippling
even the strongest and richest among us. "<I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN style="COLOR: black">The 'free market'
has never existed, it is a utopian construct designed to mask the 'social'
forces that actually shape the economy. Historically, as 'the arts' are
liberated from the shackles of the patronage system and thereby become 'Art' in
its modern sense, precisely at that moment when the commodification of culture
brings about the possibility of its ideological 'autonomy,' the institution of
art emerges to regulate the cultural field. It follows from this that in
attacking the institution of art, the avant-garde ought to develop a critique of
commodity relations."</SPAN></I></FONT><A title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6"
href="#_ftn6" name=_ftnref6><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="COLOR: black"><SPAN style="mso-special-character: footnote"><SPAN
class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[6]</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></A><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><o:p></o:p></I></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><FONT face="Times New Roman">What is a
successful dissent, appropriate for an immaterial, multitude worker? Surely the
answer does not lie in one-day warning protests. Such kind of gesture is almost
impossible – and a little bit perverse, too – to perform these days. Even if it
happens, it does not bring much benefit to the protestors. Such gestures – we
could name them minute-protests</FONT><A title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7"
href="#_ftn7" name=_ftnref7><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="mso-special-character: footnote"><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[7]</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> – are just an ordinary exhaust of the system to cool
down the angriest lads of the society, and to provide them an official
performative catharsis. By the end of the day they happily go home to cradle
their naive thought how they rebelled against the system. A single-day dissent,
even an organized one, unfortunately brings nothing new anymore. Except from the
profit for local stores which happily run of all stocks of liquor. The morning
after, an alarm clock rings as so many mornings before and yesterday’s
protestors go back to work, schools or to apply for social help, as they usually
do on mornings. What they are fighting for cannot be found on barricades
anymore, for it belongs to some other historical space and time. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Capitalism is very fond of minor, single-day protests. It
is a simple method how a system, any system, provides quick cleaning methodes
for the most angry members of the society, so it can successfully transfer their
attention to some minor affairs, so that they no longer think what is wrong with
the system they live in. A single-day dissent, usually generously supported by
politics, is one of many diplomatic tools used by capitalism to soften its image
on the global level and to strengthen its position and control on the local
scene. When Thomas Jefferson, while working as an ambassador in France, heard
about farmers' riots in his USA, he wrote the following statement to Abigail
Adams: <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">"The spirit of resistance to
government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept
alive… I like a little rebellion now and then!"</I> But, when the farmers'
dissent in one year's time had been suppressed in blood, the same<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Jefferson wrote in a letter to some
colonel: <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">"The tree of liberty must be
refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is
natural manure."</I></FONT><A title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8"
href="#_ftn8" name=_ftnref8><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="mso-special-character: footnote"><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[8]</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><FONT face="Times New Roman">In
Multitude the experience of dissent is very much designed by the help of
computer-mediated technologies. One of the latest examples are student
demonstrations in France, which helped to withdraw the conflictious Villepin's
First Employment Contract bill. As a connective communicative element also
served mobile phones and internet. The danger upon the dissent of immaterial
workers is mostly in their inability to become a unique political subject. Only
the fact that they are connected through creative industries and technology is
just not enough. When the first thrill about small successful dissents is over,
the immaterial protestors are faced with a fatal loop. It is the key moment when
protestors, a little bit tired, do not notice, how the other side – the one that
literally never sleeps – takes the reins of the protest into their own hands as
much quietly and smoothly. As every good strategist, the other side then waits
for a while and allow the protestors to continue their dissent, for only a
moment later, in a manner of contemporary Debordian spectacle, sweeps them away
and sometimes even recycles on the nearest garbage disposal. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"></SPAN><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Capitalism
does not love order; the state does it. The finality of capitalism is not a
technical, social or political creation built according to rule, its aesthetic
is not that of the beautiful but of the sublime, its poetics is that of genius:
capitalist creation does not bend to rules, it invents them.</SPAN></I><A
title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn9" href="#_ftn9" name=_ftnref9><SPAN
class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><SPAN
style="mso-special-character: footnote"><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: SL; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[9]</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></A><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">
</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-style: italic"></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><FONT face="Times New Roman">Even a
cultural dissent, as a democratic tool for protest, is today possible only
through the dissent of the Multitude. In other words: an artist, critic,
theoretician or performer should be prepared to accept the part of dissent into
its own hands and necessarily step out of the anthropological position of
someone who is beyond and outside everything. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><FONT face="Times New Roman">"The
multiplicity of responsibilities, and their independence (their
incompatibility), oblige and will oblige those who take on those
responsibilities, small or great, to be <SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">
</SPAN>flexible, tolerant, and force; they will be their signs. Intelligences do
not fall silent, they do not withdraw into their beloved work, they try to live
up to this new <SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>responsibility,
which renders the 'intellectuals' troublesome, impossible: the <SPAN
style="mso-tab-count: 1">
</SPAN>responsibility to distinguish the intelligence from the paranoia that
gave rise to<SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1">
</SPAN>'modernity."</FONT></SPAN></I><A title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn10"
href="#_ftn10" name=_ftnref10><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><SPAN
style="mso-special-character: footnote"><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[10]</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><I><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">
</SPAN></I><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Everything has changed around us and we have inevitably
changed, too. And yet, we are so fond of the protests, dissent and rebellion
from almost a century ago. We should be aware that our task is to reinvent
dissent strategies appropriate for the society and age we live in. Repeating
older anarchistic strategies, no matter how nostalgic, naďve and ineffective the
gesture is, is yet another, just all too well known, contemporary symptom of the
symbolically castrated creative minds.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Literature<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><FONT face="Times New Roman">- Debord,
Guy, <I>Družba spektakla / Komentarji k Družbi spektakla / Panegirik: prvi
del</I>. Ljubljana: ŠOU, Študentska založba, 1999.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><FONT face="Times New Roman">- Marx,
Karl, <I>Capital</I><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic">,<I> Vol.
1.</I></SPAN> London: Penguin Books, 1990.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P><PRE style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">- Negri, Antonio, <A href="http://cobiss1.izum.si/scripts/cobiss?ukaz=FFRM&mode=5&id=1656484132959104&PF1=AU&PF2=TI&PF3=PY&PF4=KW&CS=a&PF5=CB&run=yes&SS1=">Hardt, Michael</A>, <I>Imperij. </I>Ljubljana: Študentska založba, 2003.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></PRE><PRE style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">- Negri, Antonio, <A href="http://cobiss1.izum.si/scripts/cobiss?ukaz=FFRM&mode=5&id=1656484132959104&PF1=AU&PF2=TI&PF3=PY&PF4=KW&CS=a&PF5=CB&run=yes&SS1=">Hardt, Michael</A>, <I>Multitude: war and democracy in the age of empire.</I><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic"> New York: The Penguin Press,<I> </I></SPAN>2004.<SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></SPAN></PRE><PRE style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">- </SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><A href="http://cobiss1.izum.si/scripts/cobiss?ukaz=FFRM&mode=5&id=1209488839375836&PF1=AU&PF2=TI&PF3=PY&PF4=KW&CS=a&PF5=CB&run=yes&SS1=%22Lyotard,%20Jean-Francois%22"><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Lyotard, Jean-Francois</SPAN></A>, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Political writings</I>. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993.<SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></SPAN></PRE><PRE style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">- </SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Virno, Paolo, Hardt, Michael, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Radical Thought in Italy.</I> Minneapolis: University of Minessota Press, 1996.<SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></SPAN></PRE>
<DIV style="mso-element: footnote-list"><BR clear=all>
<HR align=left width="33%" SIZE=1>
<DIV id=ftn1 style="mso-element: footnote"><PRE style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><A title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="#_ftnref1" name=_ftn1><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN lang=SL style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes"><SPAN style="mso-special-character: footnote"><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN lang=SL style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: SL; mso-fareast-language: SL; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[1]</SPAN></B></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></I></SPAN></A><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN lang=SL style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes"> Capitalism is one of the names of modernity. It presupposes the investment of the desire for the infinite in an instance already designated by Descartes (and perhaps by Augustine, the first modern), that of the will. Literary and artistic romanticism believed in struggling against this realist, bourgeois, shopkeeper's interpretation of will as infinite enrichment. But capitalism has been able to subordinate to itself the infinite desire for knowledge that animates the scenes, and to submit its achievements to its own criterion of technicity: the rule of performance that requires the endless optimalization of the cost/benefit (input/output) ratio." </SPAN></I><SPAN lang=SL style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes">Lyotard, 1993, p. 25<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">.</I></SPAN><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN lang=SL style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></I></PRE></DIV>
<DIV id=ftn2 style="mso-element: footnote">
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><A title=""
style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2" href="#_ftnref2" name=_ftn2><SPAN
class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><SPAN
style="mso-special-character: footnote"><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[2]</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"> See
</SPAN><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN lang=SL
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-ansi-language: SL">Do You Remember
Revolution?</SPAN></I><SPAN lang=SL
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-ansi-language: SL"> in Virno and
Hardt, 1996, p. 234.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV id=ftn3 style="mso-element: footnote">
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><A
title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3" href="#_ftnref3" name=_ftn3><SPAN
class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><SPAN
style="mso-special-character: footnote"><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[3]</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></A><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><FONT face="Times New Roman"> Here's a
helpful quote from a recent text by Howard Slater on metamute called Toward
Agonism – Moishe Postone’s Time, Labour & Social Domination, </FONT><A
href="http://www.metamute.org/en/toward-agonism"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">http://www.metamute.org/en/toward-agonism</FONT></A></SPAN><SPAN
lang=SL
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-ansi-language: SL"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></DIV>
<DIV id=ftn4 style="mso-element: footnote">
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><A title=""
style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4" href="#_ftnref4" name=_ftn4><SPAN
class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><SPAN
style="mso-special-character: footnote"><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[4]</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"> "</SPAN></I><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN lang=SL
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-ansi-language: SL">Capital
subsumes the whole of social life and the emerging juridical constitution
watcher over the process, supervising and regulating the relations at global
level."</SPAN></I><SPAN lang=SL
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-ansi-language: SL"> Marx, 1990, p.
1040.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV id=ftn5 style="mso-element: footnote">
<P class=MsoFooter style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><A title=""
style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5" href="#_ftnref5" name=_ftn5><SPAN
class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes"><SPAN
style="mso-special-character: footnote"><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[5]</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></A><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes">
</SPAN><SPAN lang=SL
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: SL">Hardt,
Negri, 2003.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></DIV>
<DIV id=ftn6 style="mso-element: footnote">
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><A title=""
style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6" href="#_ftnref6" name=_ftn6><SPAN
class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt"><SPAN
style="mso-special-character: footnote"><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[6]</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt"> </SPAN><SPAN lang=SL
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: SL">The
Palingenesis of the avant-garde. </SPAN><SPAN lang=SL
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-ansi-language: SL">Stuart Home, www.
variant.randomstate.org/issue1.html </SPAN></FONT><A title=""
style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7" href="#_ftnref7" name=_ftn7><SPAN
class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN lang=SL
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes"><SPAN
style="mso-special-character: footnote"><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
lang=SL
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: SL; mso-fareast-language: SL; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[7]</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></A><SPAN
lang=SL
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes">
<SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><A
href="http://cobiss1.izum.si/scripts/cobiss?ukaz=FFRM&mode=5&id=1209488839375836&PF1=AU&PF2=TI&PF3=PY&PF4=KW&CS=a&PF5=CB&run=yes&SS1=%22Gramsci,%20Antonio%22">Gramsci,
</A>1973.</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></DIV>
<DIV id=ftn7 style="mso-element: footnote">
<P class=MsoFootnoteText
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN
lang=SL
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-ansi-language: SL"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></SPAN><A title=""
style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8" href="#_ftnref8" name=_ftn8><SPAN
class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><SPAN
style="mso-special-character: footnote"><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[8]</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"> Negri,
Hardt, </SPAN><SPAN lang=SL
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-ansi-language: SL">2004, p.
248.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV id=ftn9 style="mso-element: footnote">
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><A
title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn9" href="#_ftnref9" name=_ftn9><SPAN
class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><SPAN
style="mso-special-character: footnote"><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[9]</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></A><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><FONT face="Times New Roman"> Lyotard,
1993, p. 25, 26.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P></DIV>
<DIV id=ftn10 style="mso-element: footnote">
<P class=MsoFootnoteText style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><A
title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn10" href="#_ftnref10" name=_ftn10><SPAN
class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><SPAN
style="mso-special-character: footnote"><SPAN class=MsoFootnoteReference><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">[10]</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">
</SPAN><SPAN lang=SL
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-ansi-language: SL">Lyotard, 1993,
p. 7.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></DIV></FONT></FONT>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=michelsub2004@gmail.com href="mailto:michelsub2004@gmail.com">Michel
Bauwens</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=idc@bbs.thing.net
href="mailto:idc@bbs.thing.net">IDC list</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, January 03, 2007 6:13
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [iDC] The wrong kind of
youth and distributed capitalism</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><BR></FONT></DIV><FONT size=2>Trebor,<BR><BR>This is a great
posting, and I wonder if I could republish it in my own blog, as an appeal for
participation literacy? Do let me know.<BR><BR>I mostly agree with what you
said, though perhaps I would to stress the following points, which I think are
actually implied as a subtext (see your dual account of Amazon). <BR><BR>I
think that a too stringent duality between the interests of users, and the
netarchical capitalists (</FONT><A
href="http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Netarchical_Capitalism"><FONT
size=2>http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Netarchical_Capitalism </FONT></A><FONT
size=2>) who both enable and exploit participatory platforms, like Amazon,
would be counterproductive.<BR><BR>People who do participate in such platforms
get a lot of value out of it, they are not just being exploited. If you write
a review for Amazon, you contribute to the collective intelligence of the
system, and you profit from that. Furthermore, it is part of your identity,
and you get reputation value, as expressed by that youngster. <BR><BR>On a
deeper level, socially, we are less and less in a pure situation of
workers/consumers that are exploited by an external force, but rather, we move
in and out of situations, consuming one day, created user content the other;
working in peer production one day, as free lancer the other day, as employee
the third. <BR><BR>Hence, what works best I think is to show the dual nature
of those platforms, that they are both useful, and harmful, that the
owners/organizers are both acting in our interest (because it is what they
live from) and in their own, and that an awareness of the difference is
crucial, and that they are not powerless against such abuses. And of course,
the awareness that they can also create their own platforms, and avoid these
dependencies altogether. (see </FONT><A
href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/?p=736"><FONT
size=2>http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/?p=736</FONT></A><FONT
size=2>)<BR><BR>Like with environmental education, where it has been shown
that while direct participation in nature increases critical awareness, purely
critical approaches actually made youth cynical and apathetic. <BR><BR>So we
should go 'with them' and their peer ethics, rather than teach from the
outside.<BR><BR>Don't we all use all kinds of 'corporate' tools, after all
they are useful, allow sharing and participation, give all kinds of value, and
furthermore, it is also 'where the people and their attention' is, so that
worldchangers would be ill advised to isolate themselves amongst smaller but
purer in-crowd projects? <BR><BR>Michel<BR><BR></FONT>
<DIV><SPAN class=gmail_quote><FONT size=2>On 1/3/07, <B
class=gmail_sendername>Trebor Scholz</B> <</FONT><A
href="mailto:trebor@thing.net"><FONT size=2>trebor@thing.net</FONT></A><FONT
size=2>> wrote:</FONT></SPAN>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid"><FONT
size=2>I agree with Brian that youth should not be looked at as a prime
example to be imitated or as a solace for our own bad habits. However, at
the same time it is absurd to claim<BR>that today's kids are just the "wrong
(uncritical) kind of youth." <BR><BR>[The phrase "the wrong kind of snow"
goes back to a statement by British Rail's Director of Operations Terry
Worrall, who stated on 11 February 1991 that "we are having<BR>particular
problems with the type of snow".] <BR><BR>Youth needs to be educated and
what that means changes frequently. Today, informal "peer education" plays
an increasingly important role. Finding your way around<BR>participatory
cultures is crucial for professional life in the "creative industries," for
citizenship, and for personal growth. This literacy needs to be taught and
right now many <BR>relevant skills are mainly taught outside of institutions
of learning. Kids are not born with a better ability to cope with
information overload (like a sixth finger to text faster).<BR>Teenagers
don't have dual processor brains. Some of them are more fearless and playful
in their encounters with technology partially because they grew up with
networked <BR>computers.<BR><BR>However, if you don't know how to deal with
the constant influx of music, videos, software, email, friends on IM, and
blogs and wikis and MySpace posts (now also available<BR>for life on the
go), then you will be simply drown in a swamp of data. Your attention will
be so diffuse that you can't follow through with a concentrated, long-term
project. It <BR>will also be hard for you to be present with another person,
to actually "meet" them.<BR><BR>We need an ethics of participation! That's
part of participation literacy. Do I let myself being taken
advantage of by those who pull the strings behind sociable environments?
<BR>"Why would I not help out </FONT><A href="http://Amazon.com"><FONT
size=2>Amazon.com</FONT></A><FONT size=2> by writing book reviews for them
(?), they sold great books to me." I heard this puzzling logic from a young
student. I paid and<BR>therefore, in return, I give my labor away for free.
(It's of course more complex than that as arguably these reviews
serve the public as well.) Another example: <BR><BR>In mid-December at the
LeWeb 3 conference in Paris a disconcerting project was launched: YAADZ. To
the realm of viral video and guerrilla marketing you can now add
this<BR>site that offers "video advertisement by the people who watch them."
YOU AD[Z]. Somebody who loves Reebok shoes can now create their own video ad
and upload it too. <BR>And it's free. They don't even have to pay for giving
their immaterial labor away for free.<BR><</FONT><A
href="http://www.yaadz.com/"><FONT
size=2>http://www.yaadz.com/</FONT></A><FONT size=2>><BR><BR>Critical
participation literacy will make kids aware that projects like this
exemplify the self-exploiting hell of distributed capitalism. (Many of them
lack totally this criticality.) <BR>They have no hesitation to "outsource"
their photo memories to Yahoo (Flickr) or to leave all their daily life
traces with Rupert Murdoch (MySpace). The ethics of participation<BR>need to
be taught.<BR><BR>In a recent survey that I conducted, a participant (age
18) stated that she wears MySpace and YouTube like clothes. "They are an
extension of my identity," she said. If social <BR>networking sites are an
expression of identity, then we need to teach a critical awareness of the
environments in which kids hang out online. Students may be aware that it
is<BR>uncool to wear Abercrombie & Fitch but they don't hesitate to
trust MySpace with their life. (Abercrombie & Fitch was accused of
discrimination against minority employees-- <BR>2004 lawsuit Gonzalez v.
Abercrombie & Fitch).<BR><BR>My argument is clearly against continuous
partial attention. In my opinion cpa is caused by information overload and
the vertigo of choice that comes with it. To shape their <BR>own vision, to
follow their own life direction (not remote controlled by the carrots of
distributed capitalism) youth needs to learn--<BR><BR>to filter,<BR><BR>to
judge information sources,<BR><BR>to play,<BR><BR>to experiment, <BR><BR>to
collaborate with others,<BR><BR>to be critically aware of the ethics of
participation,<BR><BR>to master cooperative tools and instruments<BR>-this
includes simple email skills<BR><</FONT><A
href="http://mleddy.blogspot.com/2005/01/how-to-e-mail-professor.html"><FONT
size=2>
http://mleddy.blogspot.com/2005/01/how-to-e-mail-professor.html</FONT></A><FONT
size=2>><BR><BR>and to meaningfully distribute their ideas (create
platforms).<BR><BR>It's not the wrong kind of youth, it's merely youth that
needs to be educated.
<BR><BR>-Trebor</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>