[iDC] (no subject)

[mlahey at artic.edu]

Quoting august <august at develop.ment.org>:

> 
> Yes, the world is not roses and butterflies....but I just wanted to
> chime in here and say that I've heard another opinion on that matter in
> lecture by  Norman Solomon.
> 
> take it for what it is.
> 
> Essentially, he recommends that activists be very positive and
> optimistic (not necessarily cheery.)   The point being, we should save
> pessimism for better times.....that negativism, does in fact get you
> down.
> 
> 
> all the best -august.

Yee Haw, and amen to that!

And while I think that the discussion about curricula, etc. is very nice, I
agree with Brian that there's bigger things to talk about.  I mean, what's the
point of having a semi-global forum if you can't talk about global scale
concerns?  Otherwise IDC should change their logo to a giant water cooler.  I
mean, it's a question of why do you have this forum, right?  At least the
discussion ought to be flexible enough to zoom outwards from the delectable
minutiae when someone wants to take it there.

Anyway, I thought that "distributed creativity" implied a certain level of
unselfishness.  And it's a terribly selfish thing to do to look around one's
first world home and say, "I'm doing fine.  Why should I complain?  Those
suffering people, it's got not a lot to do with me.  I'd rather brainstorm
about ways to put my curricula on the cutting edge".  Selfish and mistaken. 
Suffering in the rest of the world has everything to do with us; our daily
choices.  Including choices of what to talk about.  And it's mistaken to think
that what happens to them won't eventually happen to us.  It is simply a matter
of time before you will program your way to the moon just to get enough clean
water to live.  Just like your average Mexican agricultural worker.

So, I think that the answer to Kevin's question

>But since you've framed the problem existentially, I'll put it back to
>you existentially - can't collective inquiry into the effects of small
>decisions on the world be more than self-justified indulgence or
>delusion? 

Is: Not on our current trajectory, sweetheart.

It's human nature to socialize, to get comfortable, to become accustomed.  This
is what we know as "peace", I think.  This is natural and good in and of
itself, however we have to keep in mind that the industrial age has been all
about designing environments for human beings in which they will turn a profit
for the designers.  Let's call these people meta-people or something.  They
used to call themselves "Uebermenschen" at one point in time.  Let's not forget
that Mussolini said Fascism would better be termed "Corporatism".  Manchester,
the first industrial town, was known as a total hell hole.  Poor people turned
off of the land by enclosure poured there trying to earn a living.  Girls came
as prostitutes.  A very, very profitable hell hole for the wealthy who designed
that town.  And the wealthy built on their successes until now all of us are
being streamed into one market or another without even realizing it!  We are
comfortably riding on a train to the apocalypse.  Remember, Jews who died in
the Holocaust were partially controlled through hope.  The Nazis always held
out the belief that somehow, there was a way to figure out how to survive.  If
you had a blue card and not a red one.  Or whatever.  They dociley complied
with outrageous demands because they thought it would help them survive.  Which
was of course, the idea the Nazis had all along. 

It's no accident.  Don't kid yourselves anymore.

We are in desperate need of (truly) global forums which ordinary people can use
to connect, to discuss their problems, to strategize.  I am stunned that Luis
Camnitzer is the only one who brought up Paolo Freire in this discussion of
liberatory pedagogy.  Why is it that it's OK to build an exclusive elite of new
media experts when the world is caving in around us?  I would like to point out,
that every computer processor made requires about 3000 tons of raw materials
including fossil fuel, and that for each processor around three people are
murdered in Africa where the minerals are mined.  

So the least you could do with this insane concentration of wealth and power is
to figure out how to dismantle this terrible system without killing us all or
starting a war.  Each of us is gifted with a self and a mind of our own.  We
each have something to contribute that only we know how to give.  If we could
all find out what that is, and then perform it to the best of our ability, to
give with all our passion and strength, then there is no question that we could
succeed.  However, we would have to actually *begin*.  There's the catchola.

There's a story about dogs that says if you keep a dog in a cage 4x4 for the
first year of his life, when you put him in the backyard he's almost gonna die
from fright.  Or he's going to freak out and attack someone.  He's definitely
going to bark endlessly and repetitively.  And he's going to stay within a
territory that's about 4x4.  This story reminds me of y'all.  You *inherently*
have way more freedom and creativity and altruism than you are using.

Malian







> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> iDC -- mailing list of the Institute for Distributed Creativity
> (distributedcreativity.org)
> iDC at bbs.thing.net
> http://mailman.thing.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/idc
> 
> List Archive:
> http://mailman.thing.net/pipermail/idc/
>