A Little Light

Digital rights activist John Perry Barlow on Total Information Awareness, the downside of anti-warblogging, Aldous Huxley, and more…

Here's a portion of his take on anti-war blogging (and actually, on rallies and marches): "Actually I'm discouraged with the role of the Internet in the antiwar movement. Because so far what I see happening is that cyberspace is a great place for everybody to declaim. There are a million virtual streetcorners with a million lonely pamphleteers on them, all of them decrying the war and not actually coming together in any organized fashion to oppose it. It strikes me that existing political institutions—whether it's the administration or Congress or large corporations—only respond to other institutions. I don't care how many individuals you have marching in the streets, they're not going to pay attention until there's a leader for those individuals who can come forward and say I represent the organization of those individuals and we're going to amass the necessary money and votes to kick you the hell out of office. Then they pay attention. But not until. And so right at the moment it would strike me that the Internet is counterproductive to peace."

I think there's some merit to this. But I can think of a lot of counterarguments. For one, it seems to overlook the proven potential for bloggers to influence at least one institution–Big Media. And I'd also think that the power of the Internet to organize and energize would offset whatever flatfootedness comes from venting opposition within blogdom. Hmmm…