[microsound] System that Works and other Altered States

[tasty radish <tastyradish@xxxxxxxxx>]

Imho, no "system" will 'work', in the long run. Because hegemony 
is a constant, and is always in a certain essential way in flux, there is therefore 
always conflict and struggle (whether latent overt or hidden). The issue is not some kind of social darwinism
or humanism coming to the rescue in the throes of the ego-apprehension of the chaos of the 
"political body"/reality but rather how different struggles and pleasures are 
being worked out and developing in different parts of the world, etc. (*in relation*, of course,
to discourses that are going on ("Globalization", etc.)).  

I write all this to get to this: What pleasures and powers does MySpace offer for individuals?
 

Maybe??:

1. "netting people" (like fish in this big sea of the 1st world Wal-Mart "global" mess)
2. getting on the net at a certain node! with others who are also into it (Fad hysteria is definetly something, i.e. its just hot, at bottom)
3. being *In* a pool with other great Individuals (Neil Young to Girl Next Door, MySpaceFriends) (Elitism masked as equality??)
4. Leverage (capitalist ideology practice)
5. Express and get sympathy/support from "friends" for your desire to Make It (Oprah land of the Victim and the alienated -- no real friends, i.e. 
people who love you whether or not you make it)

Also, important is how this arises now at a certain point in the development of the internet. 
I am thinking of the boom in things like MatchUp.com, etc. etc. 

That is, the space of the Net, has become highly 'personalized' -- however with certain rules, routes and routines of the 'personal'. Certain tasks, boxes to click, etc.


Myself, I chalk it up to the influence of the west coast developers of software, computers, etc. Their particular post-war baby boomer vision
of the cyber-space futurism has always been marked with this weird DIY entrepenuerial combo with earthy-crunchy libertarian americana hokum and (moral) confusion (self-centered). This matrix of 
a discourse still carries on, in all kinds of ways. So, we have things like "assets" and "leveraging", etc. etc. in how software, the net, etc. are conceptualized, 
determined, written and practiced/enjoyed by ga-zillions, at the "interface" level. 

....the new mass media. Walter Benjamin wrote about "the Masses" as people who are literally massed around commodities. Like in a sense, 
magnets or prisoners. Now, *you* get to make the show. All in our spaces. Monitored by Murdoch, et al. 
 

..o2 cents, a

 


 		
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