428 lines
21 KiB
Plaintext
428 lines
21 KiB
Plaintext
BIG BROTHER LIVES!!
|
|
The Anarchives Volume 2 Issue 3
|
|
The Anarchives Published By
|
|
The Anarchives The Anarchy Organization
|
|
The Anarchives tao@lglobal.com
|
|
|
|
Send your e-mail address to get on the list
|
|
Spread The Word Pass This On...
|
|
|
|
--/\-- The Information Revolution
|
|
/ / \ \ Power & Oligarchy
|
|
---|--/----\--|--- McLuhan's Global Village
|
|
\/ \/
|
|
/\______/\ by Jesse Hirsh
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"The extensions of human consciousness are projecting themselves
|
|
into the total world environment via electronics, forcing
|
|
humankind into a robotic future."1
|
|
|
|
The information revolution is here; transforming the globe; we
|
|
witness the information age. This is the second
|
|
industrial revolution; a change in the means of production;
|
|
accompanied by volatile frontier capitalism. Vast amounts of
|
|
wealth are being created and centralized as large information
|
|
based corporations explore and expand the electronic frontier.
|
|
The proliferation of information technology has and will
|
|
continue to have profound effects upon society, changing the
|
|
industrialized world into a fully integrated information economy.
|
|
The information revolution creates global information
|
|
institutions that harness all the effects and benefits of
|
|
globalization, and create the global corporate state. The
|
|
individuals in control of these institutions form a political
|
|
elite, whose strength grows as its numbers diminish. The iron
|
|
law of oligarchy continues as global organization yields global
|
|
rule, and a global elite. Among the ranks of this elite are the
|
|
owners of the technology, supported by subservient classes of a
|
|
corporate and technical elite. This essay examines these issues,
|
|
then begins to present options for resistance towards this
|
|
global power move.
|
|
Marshall McLuhan in The Global Village illustrates the
|
|
transformative and oligarchic natures of the emerging media. It
|
|
is in this work that McLuhan identifies the trend in
|
|
communications that he terms "Global Robotism". This term
|
|
describes a method of social organization that accompanies the
|
|
proliferation of electronic media such as computers, satellites,
|
|
global networks, and multi-way video communication. Humanity
|
|
extends itself into the electronic environment, lending itself
|
|
to electronic organization. We witness the emergence of a global
|
|
machine, a global computer that is alive with a developing
|
|
global consciousness, derived from the collective efforts of
|
|
millions of human participants. GAIA rises from the
|
|
industrialized world.
|
|
|
|
"As man succeeds in translating his central nervous system into
|
|
electronic circuitry, he stands on the threshold of outering his
|
|
consciousness into the computer."2
|
|
|
|
This essay also takes into consideration the work of C. Wright
|
|
Mills, and Robert Michels in order to understand the potential
|
|
role of the new power structure that emerges in the wake of the
|
|
information revolution. Their works are concerned with the roles
|
|
of elites in mass organization, they illustrate the present and
|
|
potential roles of an elite within the burgeoning information
|
|
age.
|
|
|
|
"As the institutional means of power and the means of
|
|
communications that tie them together have become steadily more
|
|
efficient, those now in command of them have come into command
|
|
of instruments of rule quite unsurpassed in the history of
|
|
mankind."3
|
|
|
|
The information revolution creates a new institution that
|
|
enhances existing ones, while creating a new and unique global
|
|
entity. The proliferation of computers and advanced
|
|
communication technology throughout society provide the medium
|
|
that is revolutionizing the means of production. Converging
|
|
media create the potential for a unified electronic environment
|
|
in which mass media are homogenized into a standardized mosaic
|
|
of human communication. Decentralization on the micro level
|
|
yields massive centralization on the macro scale. Multimedia and
|
|
interactive technologies become the central modes of
|
|
communication, and a new environment is created in which
|
|
everything is considered data; the user merges with the data
|
|
base as the system becomes so total that exclusion is a
|
|
technical impossibility. The earth reduces itself to binary code
|
|
to form an institution of global power.
|
|
|
|
"More and more people will enter the market of information
|
|
exchange, lose their private identities in the process, but
|
|
emerge with the ability to interact with any person on the face
|
|
of the globe. Mass, spontaneous electronic referendums will
|
|
sweep across continents. The concept of nationalism will fade
|
|
and regional governments will fall as the political implications
|
|
of spaceship earth create a world government."4
|
|
|
|
The people in control of this emerging global governance, wield
|
|
power unsurpassed by previous regimes or empires; the hegemony
|
|
of information power. The information media penetrates into our
|
|
lives, transforming us: the media is the message.
|
|
|
|
"There are no more passengers, only crew. Such a grasp of
|
|
totality suggests the possibility of control not only of the
|
|
planet but of change itself."5
|
|
|
|
The information revolution is a bourgeois corporate revolution,
|
|
of the highest magnitude. Enacted by large conglomerates, it is
|
|
fueled by their continued investment and research & development.
|
|
The corporate world benefits the most from the success of the
|
|
information revolution. This is true for the simple reason that
|
|
they own, operate, and create the revolution. Through its
|
|
enactment the corporate sector is experiencing its greatest
|
|
empowerment ever, gross profits at the highest levels and the
|
|
expansion of the corporate state.
|
|
This empowerment is accompanied by the emergence of a corporate
|
|
elite. An elite that integrates itself into the foundation, or
|
|
backbone of the information society. Their infiltration if not
|
|
creation of the emerging environment of human communication
|
|
places them at centre-ground; everywhere and yet seemingly
|
|
nowhere at all times.
|
|
|
|
"The multi-carrier media corporation has the peculiar ability to
|
|
be a media orchestrator, to link all video-related technologies,
|
|
whether satellite, earth station, microwave, date base, or
|
|
computer into a resonating whole."6
|
|
|
|
The two corporate giants, American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T)
|
|
and International Business Machines (IBM), are built upon information
|
|
technology, and through the information revolution are increasing their
|
|
global dominance. Through centralized government-military-industrial
|
|
spending and their own monopolistic practices they are among the largest
|
|
corporations in the world. Together they hold the copyrights and patents
|
|
on most of the technology of the past, present, and future.7 Now through
|
|
deregulation these American centred organizations are able to wield and
|
|
develop their power on a global scale. Their presence within the global
|
|
arena places them as competitors for global power.
|
|
.......
|
|
ue$$$$""""$$$$$$"""*$Nc
|
|
z$# 3$$$$$ 4$$$$$ $$$$$N.
|
|
d$E '$$$$$ 4$$$$$ $$$$F ^$r
|
|
.$$$$$ $$$$$F 4$$$$$ .$$$$ $
|
|
dF$$$$$b *$$$$$ $$$$$ 4$$$$ $
|
|
$ 3$$$$$ '$$$$$ $$$$$ 4$$$$ 4F
|
|
$r $$$$$L $$$$$ $$$$$ 4$$$$ $
|
|
'$ 4$$$$$ $$$$$F $$$$$ 4$$$$ $
|
|
3$ $$$$$F 4$$$$F $$$$$ 4$$$F $
|
|
$L 4$$$$$ $$$$$ 4$$$$ 4$$$F $
|
|
$. $$$$$ $$$$$ 4$$$$r 4$$$F 4F
|
|
3$ '$$$$k 3$$$$ $$$$F 4$$$F 4F
|
|
$r $$$$$ 4$$$$ **6CL..J?"*" 4F
|
|
4$ ^$$$$r Ce$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$F
|
|
$r $*)d$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$9$$$F
|
|
4$ u$$$$$$$$$$$$"^$$$$$$$$*** **$F
|
|
$$$"$$$$$$$$$*" z$$$$$$b @$F ..
|
|
9$$ ^$$"$$$$$$r '$$$$$$$$ :L $$b .z$$@$JF
|
|
'$* :$$$$$$$.@$$Nd$$$$$$u$$$$c$$e$B@# dWF
|
|
.ue$$$***********************$$CBW*#" dS$"
|
|
z$*2e*#""" ^".Cue$****""""$ .dl$"
|
|
.@#z# .ue@**")zc. .$z$$P
|
|
4$:P .e$ed*"*$#" 4F $ C*c?$$c4r @#$)6F$"
|
|
'$$ :$P@F z*h.P J$" ^*$$$" .$$$**$$"
|
|
'*Im. $d`CW **" @z" . ueP*$- $4E$$Nc$ $c.
|
|
'"**$"4$*" .e2P ^9F"**=*) $ $*$+*3z$W"
|
|
. .*r .F$'3F9P """ u $"" 'L"
|
|
:P$*JF3$F* $$ @.. $ 3r $
|
|
:e$6@":$$b.'$ zS$c "*r ^L :$
|
|
'$$$**"$"b$.4$ *$$N$$PF $$ $ .$$
|
|
"$$ku#J$ .# @@FF`u $ '" $N@F'$$"
|
|
$$u ?$'N /$> d :" $ $ r $P
|
|
^$$F $$*"$$. ** $ '" F $
|
|
^$b@)5F4N $$@P $" .$ ^""#"\ $
|
|
'##$$/$ 4$$$ ^F'* ..(@6*$" 4$
|
|
z$ "$F ?$$$L F z" "^$$JF
|
|
d?$ "b 4$$$e b:d $$
|
|
.$ 3$$. ^*6 '#NJ 'k9 3 ^Nf$
|
|
JP eN*$$k '"*eu*NJNF'$$'r '$3$
|
|
:$".ek '$$$L ^b "$\ :F k $b.
|
|
u$$.kEF $$$$u '* P@ d F$$$$bu
|
|
u@$$$$f` $k .*$$$$c . 4$F "F $'$$$$$$F
|
|
u$$$$$$$$$ .P "d" #$$$$$NJ$$$d$J F ^k *$$$$$
|
|
.dB$$$$$$$$$$$r "*h ?L ^$$$$$$$$$$$$ b 'u 'kr$$$$h
|
|
'@'9$$$$$$$$$$$$ 4b" ^"" '$$$$$$$l$$FL &L * '$$$$$@.
|
|
^$$$$$$$$$$b ' 9$$$\$$$$$f ^EN 3L$$6$$2"
|
|
d$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$**" "$9$$$$$$$Nmu% :/L $$6$$F
|
|
'~*@$b$$$$N. ^$$$$$$$$$$$bI$'$L$$$$
|
|
~ 4$$$k*$$N. $$$$$$$ 9$$$$$k$F$$F
|
|
N$NE$J*$$u "$$$$ "$$$$' 4$
|
|
"#d3N$$9$$k ^$$F "" $
|
|
**3b$NP$b. *L $9 $
|
|
"*d$d"$u "b #
|
|
'*k *
|
|
"N.
|
|
^$k
|
|
Some of their current financial figures illustrate just how
|
|
large these companies are. AT&T in 1993 had a total revenue of
|
|
$67.2 billion with a profit of $3.97 billion.8 Similarly IBM's
|
|
revenue for 1994 was $64.1 billion with profits reaching $3.02
|
|
billion.9 Their economic performance rates better than most
|
|
nations. IBM has a practical monopoly in the large computer
|
|
mainframe10 industry, supplying 72% of the mainframes in the
|
|
world, primarily to corporate and government clients.11 AT&T has
|
|
generated huge revenue through virtual telephone monopolies, and
|
|
these are likely to grow as they begin marketing multi-way
|
|
television technology.12 Both of these companies compete with
|
|
other smaller information technology companies acting as the
|
|
vanguard of the information revolution. The fate of countless
|
|
other companies, not to mention nation-states rests upon the
|
|
implementation and further development of information technology
|
|
by these two competing communication conglomerates. To
|
|
understand the oligarchic potential consider the impact that
|
|
their information technology will have on financial
|
|
institutions. McLuhan states:
|
|
|
|
"There is no technical reason why the 40,000 - odd financial
|
|
institutions in North America devoted to banking, securities,
|
|
and insurance could not be merged into a single institution
|
|
through electronic means."13
|
|
McLuhan continues to describe this process:
|
|
Using EFT: electronic fund transfers, "banks are able to
|
|
transfer money electronically between customers bank accounts"
|
|
which in effect enables "the creation of a super bank through
|
|
the electric linking of literally hundreds of local and regional
|
|
data sources to provide the entire Western world a view of your
|
|
social and economic standing."14
|
|
|
|
The information revolution is accompanied by the liberation of
|
|
capital, generating the gross amounts it needs to continue
|
|
developing and profiting. As the implementation of this new
|
|
media continues the intensity of future development increases.
|
|
The rate of change, and the rate of growth operates on an
|
|
exponential scale, requiring increasing amounts of capital to
|
|
fuel the industrial expansion. Free Trade allows the
|
|
globalization of capital that enables the creation of the global
|
|
banking institution, and at the same time enhancing global
|
|
centralization through the protection of American intellectual
|
|
property.
|
|
It is in this context that AT&T and IBM offer the best
|
|
contemporary example of oligarchic rule.
|
|
|
|
"The commercial corporate organization is, after all, a broad
|
|
extension of the human mind; it develops controlling structures
|
|
to organize human behaviour to produce an economic benefit."15
|
|
|
|
The control of such an organization is purposefully
|
|
hierarchical, centralizing control into the hands of the few
|
|
members on the board of directors, and indirectly the minority
|
|
of society who are share holders. Therefore if a few large
|
|
corporations control society, through their control of the
|
|
increasingly dominant information industry, the traditional
|
|
pattern of rule by the few continues.
|
|
Accompanying this rule of the few, will be a similar oligarchic
|
|
pattern on the micro level. The information regime requires a
|
|
class of technical administrators to act as enforcers who are
|
|
able to wield the power centralized by means of information
|
|
technology. The process of decentralization that occurs on the
|
|
micro level is accompanied by centralization within these
|
|
diverging centres.
|
|
|
|
"In short, the entire operation has been miniatruized, speeded
|
|
up, and placed under the direction of one mind instead of
|
|
several."16
|
|
|
|
System administrators with the aid of computer technology
|
|
single-handedly control information networks. They bear the
|
|
responsibilities of access, security, maintenance, and general
|
|
network structure. Through control of the technology they are
|
|
also in control of the users. This one person can make the
|
|
decision whether a user may operate on the system; what, when,
|
|
and how they operate on it; as well as having access to all
|
|
personal records and actions made by that individual user. This
|
|
pattern of technological control is explicitly oligarchic.
|
|
This oligarchic pattern resembles similar trends described by
|
|
Robert Michels who stated: "Who says organization, says
|
|
oligarchy"17. As information is organized on a global scale,
|
|
control of such information is in the hands of technical
|
|
administrators, forming a new bureaucratic class. This class
|
|
will act as support for the new political elite that accompanies
|
|
the proliferation of information technology.
|
|
|
|
"The bad news is that all persons, whether or not they
|
|
understand the processes of computerized high-speed data
|
|
transmission, will lose their old private identities. What
|
|
knowledge there is will be available to all. So, in that sense,
|
|
everybody will be nobody. Everyone will be involved in robotic
|
|
role-playing including those few elitists who interpret or
|
|
manage large-scale data patterns and thus control the functions
|
|
of a speed-of-light society. The more quickly the rate of
|
|
information exchange speeds up, the more likely we will all
|
|
merge into a new robotic corporate entity, devoid of true
|
|
specialism which has been the hallmark of our old private
|
|
identities. The more information one has to evaluate, the less
|
|
one knows. Specialism cannot exist at the speed of light."18
|
|
|
|
In conclusion, the information revolution is the latest attempt
|
|
by a small elite to consolidate its control on society and
|
|
reinforce the oligarchy that has traditionally existed. It
|
|
threatens to support the iron law of oligarchy which states that
|
|
as society continues to grow and further organize it
|
|
simultaneously centralizes power and control into the hands of
|
|
the few. At present the media is swamped with
|
|
information-hypeway and all the positive aspects of information
|
|
technology. This purposeful misinformation, and to some extent
|
|
indoctrination, serves to cloud the minds of the public into
|
|
thinking they are aware of the changes, and furthermore approve
|
|
of them. Yet throughout this second industrial revolution very
|
|
few are critically addressing the transformations that are
|
|
occurring.
|
|
The information revolution can be expressed in the metaphor of
|
|
Noah's Ark. Great rains are falling, determined to flood the
|
|
world. For most the choice will come down to sink or swim.
|
|
However those who can be quick on the mark, recognize early
|
|
what's going on, might still have enough time to build their own
|
|
boat, and find their own piece of land in the new frontier.
|
|
Perhaps the opportunity to participate in the development of the
|
|
future.
|
|
As the ruling class continues its consolidation of power, and
|
|
the strengthening of the oligarchy, opposition to its tyranny
|
|
grows. A resistance emerges to counter this flow of power, as
|
|
awareness of this change increases.
|
|
Perhaps the most successful resistance movement, or more
|
|
accurately described counterculture, are the so-called
|
|
"hackers". The average computer hacker epitomizes McLuhan's
|
|
concept of ground within an electronic environment. Under the
|
|
threat of severe retaliation and persecution, hackers are forced
|
|
to maintain a myriad of identities, inhabiting a widely
|
|
distributed area, blending into and becoming ground. A hacker
|
|
will have hundreds if not thousands of "accounts" or access
|
|
points to an information system. Like the power elite themselves
|
|
they have integrated themselves into the framework of the
|
|
electronic environment. Through exploration of "backdoors" and
|
|
security holes hackers have familiarized themselves with the
|
|
inner workings of the system so as to dissolve into its
|
|
structure. They have been able to obtain unlimited access, to
|
|
the extent that they themselves actively participate in the
|
|
development of the emerging media. They constitute an opposition
|
|
to corporate centralization that increases with the success of
|
|
those same corporate interests. Their belief in the freedom of
|
|
information, places them as the most serious and severe threat
|
|
to the emerging new order. Yet at the same time relatively
|
|
little is known about this counterculture, an indication of
|
|
their success at embodying the concept of ground.
|
|
Another form of resistance that is emerging in the changing
|
|
information environment are community groups demanding their own
|
|
empowerment in the ongoing information revolution. These public
|
|
interest groups are commendable in the sense that they oppose
|
|
corporate centralization and greed, however their actions at
|
|
present seem only to re-enforce the corporate process of
|
|
empowerment. Tragically the large majority of these groups are
|
|
still convinced that the "content" is the message, and are
|
|
directing actions accordingly. In effect these organizations are
|
|
dealing with the information revolution on a shallow and
|
|
superficial level. As long as they ignore the role of the medium
|
|
itself within the electronic environment, they will remain
|
|
subservient to the corporate order.
|
|
This raises the role of awareness within the possibility of
|
|
resistance. Clearly awareness is essential in determining
|
|
possible courses of action. However awareness alone cannot
|
|
achieve change, it obviously must be accompanied by action. One
|
|
would hope that awareness would increase revolutionary fervour
|
|
and the desires for social justice rather than simply unite
|
|
apathy with corporate obedience.
|
|
The military-industrial complex has successfully integrated
|
|
itself into the innermost workings of our society. Military
|
|
technology can now be found within every home, and every
|
|
workplace. The institution itself has effectively dissolved into
|
|
the essence of our society. We are now all members of this
|
|
powerful entity, and we must turn to the ground to not only
|
|
ensure our survival as socially just human beings, but also
|
|
fight for the survival of our species. The option of running
|
|
away to the hills no longer seems to be available. We are
|
|
surrounded on all sides; our only option is to confront the
|
|
changes taking place and hope to have some effect on their
|
|
outcome.
|
|
|
|
Time to get our shit together....
|
|
|
|
1 McLuhan, Marshall & Powers, Bruce; The Global Village; Oxford
|
|
University Press, New York 1989, pp. viii
|
|
|
|
2 McLuhan & Powers; The Global Village; pp. 94
|
|
|
|
3 Mills, C. Wright; The Power Elite, pp. 23
|
|
|
|
4 McLuhan & Powers; The Global Village; pp. 118
|
|
|
|
5 McLuhan & Powers; The Global Village; pp. 98
|
|
|
|
6 McLuhan & Powers; The Global Village; pp. 119
|
|
|
|
7 All information used in this essay on AT&T and IBM comes from
|
|
their respective Web sites on the internet that can be reached
|
|
through the following addresses:
|
|
|
|
http://www.att.com/
|
|
|
|
http://www.ibm.com/
|
|
|
|
8 AT&T Corporate Report 1993, from
|
|
http://www.att.com/finance.html
|
|
|
|
9 IBM corporate report 1994, from http://www.ibm.com/finance.html
|
|
|
|
10 Mainframes are super-computers, often the size of several
|
|
rooms, that are the essential components of computing in any
|
|
medium to large sized organization.
|
|
|
|
11 From IBM Web site http://www.ibm.com/industry.html
|
|
|
|
12 From http://www.att.com/future.html
|
|
|
|
13 McLuhan & Powers; The Global Village; pp. 91
|
|
|
|
14 McLuhan & Powers; The Global Village; pp. 111
|
|
|
|
15 McLuhan & Powers; The Global Village; pp. 121
|
|
|
|
16 McLuhan & Powers; The Global Village; pp. 106
|
|
|
|
17 Michels, Robert; Political Parties; Free Press, New York
|
|
1962, pp. 365
|
|
|
|
18 McLuhan & Powers; The Global Village; pp. 129
|
|
|
|
TAO Strives On....
|
|
|
|
|