I've been thinking about this so much lately. It's been dominating my curriculum.... Sorry, can't resist posting a bunch of thoughts but it's a bit of an impertinence, so please don't anyone feel obligated to read them. :)
This was always such a fantasy, wasn't it? I mean the idea of the "town square," where people could argue freely but constructively. Lots of cultures (not all) have spaces for open, public speech. But they're usually culturally homogenous, and so are policed by the shared values of the community. I mean, you *could* stand on a village green in Leicestershire in 1500 and declare that man-on-man love was totally fine and anyway God doesn't exist, but you'd be silenced pretty quick. Not just from your neighbors either; public speech is usually policed by actual police, and the penalties typically are a lot fiercer than shadow-banning, or "catpoop200" calling you names. So whatever "town square" Musk and the others thought they were recreating, it sure didn't exist in the real world, where public speech has always had ruthlessly enforced standards.
It's so sad because this opening up of public speech could have been such a good thing. Institutions often cut off good ideas as well as bad ones. And even great journalists are generalists, and not really supposed to be advocates. So your blog is an example of exactly the sort of thing we needed, and the internet made possible: a detailed, well-informed, real-life, highly focused chronicle of what is really happening on the ground in a particular world, provided by someone living in that world, accessible to anyone. It's not unpoliced, either; it's policed by your peers - if you got something wrong, they'd be right up here in the comments section correcting you. Wikipedia's another example: enthusiasts dedicated to specific topics collaborate, often crossly, to inform outsiders about those topics, and it works because they correct each other, and they have to show their work.
I think I first got the heeby-jeebies when I heard Zuckerberg blatting on about how he just wanted to let the people of the world talk to each other. Like, god almighty, does he not know the story of homo sapiens? We're a rather contentious bunch. It's like waving a wand and making everyone telepathic so they can read the thoughts of their neighbors, and thinking this would all end in group hugs. Then again, like Musk, he doesn't seem to know a lot about the real world.
Of course, what ruined it all was money. Greed is really the cancer of the culture, at this point. Not sure anything will get much better until we revive something of the old religious disapproval of financial gourmandizing. (Am revisiting Shakespeare for an upcoming class - great word). As a firmly non-religious person, I find myself thinking "The love of money is the root of all evil" and "If I have not charity, I am as a sounding brass" and other good bits of the Book.
Isn't that love of money over community fueling the drive to get rid of public schools, in the end? That feeling that - your kids aren't my kids. In fact, I need my kids to get *ahead* of your kids, that's the whole point, and we measure this success by my stupendous amounts of moolah, and your kids' irrelevance.
The Internet has no public community parks, just amusement parks and private parks, and private organizations trying to operate in private parks. There's not even a reasonable way to host private parties on private property really because everything's owned by tech giants controlled by tycoons and corporations. We have no homes of our own on the internet, just products and services, most of which are junky... and enshittified.
I've been thinking about this so much lately. It's been dominating my curriculum.... Sorry, can't resist posting a bunch of thoughts but it's a bit of an impertinence, so please don't anyone feel obligated to read them. :)
This was always such a fantasy, wasn't it? I mean the idea of the "town square," where people could argue freely but constructively. Lots of cultures (not all) have spaces for open, public speech. But they're usually culturally homogenous, and so are policed by the shared values of the community. I mean, you *could* stand on a village green in Leicestershire in 1500 and declare that man-on-man love was totally fine and anyway God doesn't exist, but you'd be silenced pretty quick. Not just from your neighbors either; public speech is usually policed by actual police, and the penalties typically are a lot fiercer than shadow-banning, or "catpoop200" calling you names. So whatever "town square" Musk and the others thought they were recreating, it sure didn't exist in the real world, where public speech has always had ruthlessly enforced standards.
It's so sad because this opening up of public speech could have been such a good thing. Institutions often cut off good ideas as well as bad ones. And even great journalists are generalists, and not really supposed to be advocates. So your blog is an example of exactly the sort of thing we needed, and the internet made possible: a detailed, well-informed, real-life, highly focused chronicle of what is really happening on the ground in a particular world, provided by someone living in that world, accessible to anyone. It's not unpoliced, either; it's policed by your peers - if you got something wrong, they'd be right up here in the comments section correcting you. Wikipedia's another example: enthusiasts dedicated to specific topics collaborate, often crossly, to inform outsiders about those topics, and it works because they correct each other, and they have to show their work.
I think I first got the heeby-jeebies when I heard Zuckerberg blatting on about how he just wanted to let the people of the world talk to each other. Like, god almighty, does he not know the story of homo sapiens? We're a rather contentious bunch. It's like waving a wand and making everyone telepathic so they can read the thoughts of their neighbors, and thinking this would all end in group hugs. Then again, like Musk, he doesn't seem to know a lot about the real world.
Of course, what ruined it all was money. Greed is really the cancer of the culture, at this point. Not sure anything will get much better until we revive something of the old religious disapproval of financial gourmandizing. (Am revisiting Shakespeare for an upcoming class - great word). As a firmly non-religious person, I find myself thinking "The love of money is the root of all evil" and "If I have not charity, I am as a sounding brass" and other good bits of the Book.
Isn't that love of money over community fueling the drive to get rid of public schools, in the end? That feeling that - your kids aren't my kids. In fact, I need my kids to get *ahead* of your kids, that's the whole point, and we measure this success by my stupendous amounts of moolah, and your kids' irrelevance.
The Internet has no public community parks, just amusement parks and private parks, and private organizations trying to operate in private parks. There's not even a reasonable way to host private parties on private property really because everything's owned by tech giants controlled by tycoons and corporations. We have no homes of our own on the internet, just products and services, most of which are junky... and enshittified.