Democracy: Same ole', same ole'
I find myself drawn to the statement made by Lessig that "Our democracy has atrophied" (41). It reminded me of a conference I attended last fall where a colleague of mine noted a loss of "public spaces" or "town commons" areas for political discussion and protest. He reflected on a trip in his "The War Bus" to a mall parking lot with a group of his students to initiated discussion on the Iraq War. As can be seen on the website, the bus has imagery and arguments from two perspectives (Anti-war & Pro-War) plastered all over it. Before he and his students could step foot onto the blacktop, mall security agents indicated that they would have to leave. When Deluca asked why, an officer responded that the mall was private property and not an appropriate place for this political discussion. Deluca and his students began to inquire about the bumper stickers on the other cars in the parking lot and asked how the "War Bus" was different. No answer was given before the bus was forced to leave the premises.
I find it interesting that I can be bombarded by advertisements everywhere (on vacation, at home, in the bathroom, at home in my bathroom if you consider a recent text message from Cingular to my cell phone, etc.), yet our political discussion has been cut short in the physical realm...Or has it adapted to online arenas...?
I guess that I see "democracy" as described by Lessig on the move to spaces such as Kyoto and Beyond. Those with access have the potential to "deliberate" (42) on blogs/discussion boards, and those that don't have access, well, similar to those without an address on census day, they are not counted. I wonder if we have the same ole' democracy we always had . . .Or is this democracy "as good as it gets" . . . What do you all think?
(Oh, and I also find it amusing that when I completed my spell check that the program flagged "Lessig" but made sure that I capitalized "Cingular")
3 Comments:
I'm going to pick one little thing out of your comment, Wendy not as criticism but as a point to ponder.
"I wonder if we have the same ole' democracy we always had..."
I think Lessig (and the rest of us?) assume that we've even HAD a democracy in the first place. Some group has always dominated others to the point of writing or erasing the voices of the oppressed. Seems as if those voices could only be heard through underground publishings unless they somehow make it to the public domain. Maybe looking back to what we "might have had" is causing us to look at the past with nostalgia instead of seeing ot for what we might NOT have ever had. Instead of trying to return to a time where we had free culture we need to look forward to how we can create one.
Perhaps the Internet is a place to open society to more voices. At the same time we need to recognize that those without access are still neglected, ignored, or erased. Their votes don't count. And as long as people read blogs and do nothing, our votes don't count either. What do those of us WITH the access do, then?
I'm feeing a little Foucault coming on.
10:45 PM
Juliette, you ask a good question: what *do* those with access do? I think that one positive thing that's happened is that people who have access are starting to assert themselves politically. Two years ago, I had never written any of my government representatives or officials. Now, I do it all the time. I learn about potential legislation on the web and I say something about it through email or web forms. Some of you may think that such writing does nothing, but think again. Here's one example of what people with access can do.
Last month, the "Democracy for Virginia" website posted about proposed legislation that would essentially require women to report miscarriages or face up to 12 months in jail and a $2500 fine. The site encouraged readers to voice their opinions by phone and email to the sponsoring representative.
After being inundated with calls and emails, Representative Cosgrove, the sponsor of the bill, posted a response clarifying his intention and deciding to change the language of the legislation "to include language that will define the bill to apply only to those babies that are claimed to have been stillborn and that are abandoned," which was his orginial intent.
Now, this is not necessarily indicative of "democracy," but I do think that it is one of those small democratic instances on the Internet.
Perhaps the larger issue with access and "free culture" is not that people in our country have access or that our country is a "free culture." Let's face it--global media, including the Internet, no longer allows us the luxury of independence from the rest of the world. Rather, how do we ensure that everyone worldwide has access? How do we create global free culture?
9:37 AM
Wendy's anecdote of the War Bus reminds me of a friend who does computer graphic work in the Detroit area.
He was assigned to design a trailer for a News Bus that was to travel to schools across the nation to discuss the history of news in print, television, and radio.
One of his jobs, in putting together a mural that was to be put on the bus was to assemble various images, among those the images of the collapse of the Berlin Wall.
The organization he was working for found an image that they liked, but it had a anarchy flag that they thought might send the wrong message.
My friend told me that he was asked to use his computer skills to take that flag out... And he did so...
Strange how a News Bus in this sense becomes something of a War Bus, but in a sense that can, but cannot be told.
In some sense, the loss of an anarchy flag on a news bus is not big news. Indeed, might one perversely suggest that in removing the anarchy flag that the news media reveals-conceals a sense of support of anarchy. (I mean, can an anarchist say, "Hey, that's unlawful to remove my flag!" hahahahaha..) And yet, to make this loss news suggests something that news confronts all the time in terms of what is framed and what is not framed.
As to my friend, he sez his conscience is "as white as snow." Indeed, when i pressed him on this, he said that this story is un/just so perfect to tell in terms of the snowjobs that he is sometimes asked to perform in other areas of his work.
Some people!
10:08 AM
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