How capitalism is putting the Internet against democracy
At the end of the last century it was aimed at having computers as pioneers of equality and cooperation and not based on benefits or competition. The Internet was seen as a common good to serve social justice. The appearance of hackers were vital to reflect, as Robert W explains. MCCHESNEY, "The commitment to free and available information, with the necessary hostility towards centralized authority and secrecy, and the pleasure of learning and knowledge".
In his work, Digital Disconnection, the author remembers that almost thirty years ago the so-called World Wide Web (WWW) was created by Tim Berners-Lee, emphasizing the recognition of this in the impossibility of patenting it and payment for its use, its use,since its goal was to share for the common good. McSney makes a comparison in this work about the conflict that is generated between the collaborative function of the Internet and the commercial use that has occurred in recent decades. According to him, there are still initiatives that foster their non -commercial use but fears that the imposition of the second line leads everything that is known from the internet to a novel derivative, that of the collaborative economy.
The author reflects on the moment we are, considering it ideal to begin to understand the route that Internet has had and thus focus issues that are planted for society. As well as to better understand the decisions that society has made regarding the type of Internet we have wanted and we will have in the future. And consequently, in a more abstract sense, to decide what kind of humans we will be and we will not be through the technology we have at our disposal, since the author does not doubt the immense and revolutionary implicit potential that entails internet about societies andThe great corporations that intend to dominate the Internet, reaching to remodel the democratic potential to enhance or go back it.
Despite this, McChesney acknowledges that due to the wide magnitude and complexity, the growth and unforeseen internet changes, it becomes complicated to understand this media scenario that intervenes in the US public debate.UU. And even more, make forecasts. So that more questions arise than answers about the worrying orientations of the media and especially political movements. How McChesney mentions, however, there are those who struggle to build and articulate a democratic alternative to austerity against the noise of neoliberal propaganda.
The author tries to identify and simplify two broad main ideologies throughout the book, which pre -establish the current situation in the face of this crisis: that of optimists and skeptics:
On the one hand, McSney mentions Clay Shirky and Yochai Benkler how the most eloquent. They optimistically configure democratization that has led to the Internet in the world of information by unleashing our creative spirit and collaboration and freeing us all to participate in projects such as Wikipedia. Other authors mentioned by McChesney defend that the Internet has served to overcome power imbalances and thus create regenerated capitalism with ethical entrepreneurs. As the author cites with the narrative of Simon Mainwaring, "integrating values in their commercial strategies and hugging the role as lasting guardians of the community and planetary well -being".
On the other hand, skeptics warn that the Internet can corrupt our culture (Jaron Lanier), strengthening authoritarian governments (Evgeny Morozov, Rebecca Mackinnon), channeling towards information ghettos at the expense of democracy (Eli Pariser) and undermine our ability toDeep and reflective thinking (Nicholas Carr). Each of these authors, like others in this orientation, illuminate the cultural, political and psychological changes that the Internet encourages.
Technology is part of the social relations of hierarchy and control, and its use will tend to go depending on the interests of those who have power, expanding the dynamics of the existing social and economic system. A technology introduced under capitalism guides to reinforce its tendencies to domination and inequality, unless the balance of class power as a whole remains, guaranteeing the necessary compensatory force.
If we take as an example, the printing press, something that history provided as a revolutionary technology, can be called as a challenge against authority: since the printing press allowed Lutheran to spread cheap copies from the Bible and thus challenge the spiritual and temporal authority of thePapacy, as it served as a mass mobilizer in order to increase the illustrating ideologies of the French Revolution. Despite this, these antiautory possibilities can only be carried out if technology is used by organized interests that challenge the common sense of society against those who exercise have power over society.
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