Of the many ideas championed by WorldChanging, pretty much the only one that sticks in my craw is the participatory panopticon. This week's example is particularly disturbing: it's a Malaysian site that allows citizens to post picturephone photos of traffic violators:
The Malaysian Star notes that the site is operated by the national Traffic Ministry.Nice? I'm not convinced. The advent of a surveillance state is not more appealing simply because ordinary citizens are its agents. Quite the opposite.
This is a nice example of two aspects of the participatory panopticon: (a) it's global; and (b) it makes it far simpler to record (and, possibly, prosecute) petty crimes and deceptions.
The intriguing side of the particpatory panopticon is its ability to reveal and reduce instances of police brutality and similar abuses of power. The program cited by WorldChanging, however, is more along the lines of a neighborhood watch program, and as such is merely an intensification of an existing form of top-down social control.
Personally, I'm always happy to see bad drivers identified and punished, and chances are, the Malaysian program will accomplish nothing more sinister than that. That said, I don't see how Malaysia's network of citizen-informants is really "world changing," in practical or philosophical terms. While it may not be absolutely necessary to denounce it, I see no compelling reason to applaud it.
As for the question of reducing police brutality - at demonstrations, for instance - I've noted elsewhere that there's some debate over whether panoptic surveillance actually reduces crime on the part of citizens or terrorists. Accordingly, I think it'd be logical to question whether it can realistically reduce governmental crime. One also has to consider the technological and financial advantages that government agencies enjoy. Jamming camcorders is one possible law-enforcement response to the participitory panopticon; jamming digital cameras is another.
Ultimately, the only thing I'm quite certain the participatory panopticon will bring us is increased sexual harassment of women, in public and private.
7 comments:
Phila - I think you are making good sense here.
In Seattle, where I am based, and where seperately, World Changing marketing efforts are based, Activists (anti war, anti globalist, etc) DO RECORD the police and their quasi-legal disruptions of "anarachist" public gatherings.
But it doesn't matter. Who reads Indy Media? -- hemp roasting fucks, conforming non-conformists, conspiracy theorists.
Meanwhile, with a straight face, here is something I saw on the local news after one of these events: A Police Sargeant holding up a rubber bullet, which he stated the demostrators had thrown! at police. Supposed etiology, a cache of these mysterious oviods was sourced by the the police originating from the scruffy backpacks of protesters.
Maybe. Maybe. Or maybe right after you get shot with a rubber bullet, you're going to throw it away too. It might if bounce off the thick skull of a plainsclothes policeman who started a fight for the uniformed polic to break up.
Back to World Changing: I think, taking in to account your position that all this positive technology that world changing describes can also be negative, I agree, but I think there are patterns of technology that are more beneficial than others, and have a tendancy to push culture in a positive direction. RIght now, they are not doing that kind of analysis over at World Changing. The Koolaid might be laced with arsenic, they'll never tell us, or even critically examine it for themselves.
So thanks Phila!
"Hemp-roasting fucks"...that sounds about right. I used to be somewhat involved with Indymedia, and I have a soft spot for 'em, but there's a lot of truth to what you say.
It pains me to criticize WorldChanging; it's one of my favorite sites. But the panopticon stuff - and their misguided post that dared to agree with David Brooks' critique of left-wing philosophy...I can't keep my trap shut about stuff like that.
Don't apologize, Speechless! Tangents and free association are what this place is all about. I'm interested in anything you have to say.
Actually, I meant to satirize the conventional view of Indy Media, not Indy Media itself, which I value with some caveats.
I myself am on occaison a hemp roasting, conspiracy theorizing, conforming non conformist fuck.
Haven't roasted hemp in some years. Been too long.
MG,
Ooops. Well, I still think there's some truth to what you say. But Lord knows I've got a conspiracy theorist streak myself. Hemp-roasting? Ugh, no. I actually did that for the first time in about 25 years a few days ago - long story - and sweet Jesus it was awful. Definitely not the appropriate drug for an unstable, bone-deep melancholic like myself!
Anyway, I really like Indymedia, on the whole. I just kind of drifted away from it.
There are certainly those people who smoke the stuff more than 3 times a week. The word "dull" comes to mind.
on the other hand, several of my friends in the software industry have sharp, jagged personality edges and huffing pot from time to time goes a long way towards smoothing that out.
then there is my friend who breaks out in spots. We laughed and laughed at him in highschool.
It's perfectly fine for anyone who enjoys it...it just doesn't work out for me. Drugs that give you MORE anxiety, I don't need!
Viva CNS depressants!
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