One of the biggest threats to the established order anywhere isnt just organized protest or boycotts. Its how we learn to communicate. And one of the biggest reasons why, for all the lip service, governments and their corporate backers are the biggest opponents of things like open access and net neutrality and unfettered, unmediated peer-to-peer information exchange is not simply profit motive. The fear is that free of gatekeepers, people will share their stories amongst themselves, have the power to make up their own minds. Information is power. And the ability to maintain power and control the message (if not the media) is vital for manufacturing consent and grooming allegiance. Why do you think Israel has an entire intelligence wing dedicated to infiltrating social media? Its not just to monitor for Hezbollah or Hamas, BDS supporters, etc. Its to hunt for free-thinking Jews who may be rejecting decades of carefully crafted nationalist rhetoric. Just like Iran. Just like China. Just like Pakistan. Or what about the Manning the in the US? The hunt for Edward Snowden? Was the crime really treason and betraying secrets, or was it really simply sharing public information that had been classified by a handful of self-appointed state censors on the orders of gatekeepers? Or Venezuela seizes media outlets and runs a West-fronted propaganda blog? Or the US government invests in countermeasures? The more open the information channels and content, the freer the people. And free people are harder to control. Its not an accident that the growing massive resistance globally to established nation states shares a reliance on mobile telephony and user-generated social media networking, or that its driven by the young. How many of these kids boycotting in Israel are kids who, a generation ago, wouldve been lining up to defend the Zionist homeland without question now have Palestinian friends on Facebook, follow Egyptian protesters and Pussy Riot on Twitter, read unfiltered criticism on blogs, and may right now be Snapchatting with that cute West Bank guy or girl who they met at the market - that kid they share a love of Vonnegut or the Ramones with that old people say needs to be fenced off for her own good?
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 13:21:26 +0000
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