dellcastelles

    Grassroots democratic consensus as demonstrated in Castelles' chapter on Occupy Wall Street is a ghosty representation of many Native American forms of government intact prior to the European invasion, from whence we got our democratic representative form (borrowed from the Irriquois).  Governing from the bottom up defies the trope of "enlightened European" forms of governing from the top down.  Kings, Queens, and corporate executive styles of getting things done are the basis of colonial governing.  Exclusion of the masses from decision making processes is dictatorial, fascist government.  The long fight for parliamentary representation gives only a vicarious mirroring of the people's perspectives.  Castelles timely book is much appreciated as historical documentation in a format other than the internet itself.  It clearly represents the creation of the Arab spring as a bottom up reaction to suppression and oppression in colonialized places suffering from dictatorial regimes.  The elites running Tunisia, Egypt, and Lybia, and sooner or later, Syria have been disposed of by the people, leaving behind them a vacuum of governing that will probably be filled by more of the same elitism unless the power of the masses is concentrated on forming government by grassroots democratic consensus in an ongoing creative enterprise that may finally result in constitutions that include checks and balances, democratic representation, and leaderships grounded in humility.  Meanwhile, back in the USA, the occupy wall street movement ran out of gas.  I think the movement was suppressed by the police state and simply went back to its technocratic comfort zone, and it will not come out again without a repeat of totally outrageous behavior by the elites in power.  In the USA the masses of people are too self-satisfied for meaningful revolution.  It is too easy for Americans to find other entertainment, that which does not result in blood in the streets.  The comraderie of the Occupy movement reminded me of the sixties (as everything does these days).  We burned the hippie in effigy after the mass media tortured us with flower power and haight-ashbury, and we quietly left town to live in tipis in the hills.  Now the Occupy movement has quietly returned to its yuppie technocracy, probably not to be heard from again, with the exception of the few freaks on the fringes of society who will see in the movement's shredded remains, the glimmer of a false hope.  The United States is too rich for revolution. 
Question: Agree or disagree? Question: Do you think the internet is a powerful tool for social change? Question: Will the US government control and suppress the internet?  Question: Will it simply delete it when threatened? Question: Will the new pentagon cyber-warfare unit be turned on our own people?