nettime's_anonymizing_service on 9 Feb 2001 05:08:49 -0000


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<nettime> Re: Strategic Spam


 The thing that will get rid of Spam quicker
 than anything is its use as a free speech
 medium for public dissent. The Good Spam
 may thus destroy the Spammers Network, as
 governments will be threatened by their
 loss of control over pseudo-public discourse.

 The threat is that everyone will Spam. And
 they probably will after a new tactic for
 free speech/thought is enacted. It could be
 a horrible price to pay for getting an idea
 out infront of the masses. But it would be
 a Public Policy Idea. not political, per se,
 not economic, per se, not partisan, per se.
 It would be about Human Beings at the most
 general level. 

 The attacks against the Public Policy Spam
 could be most helpful in getting the word
 out, in that reactions would be confused and
 would put open-communications in a whole new
 perspective. There is an opportunity because
 it will only get harder to do. And there is
 a chance to utilize the current network for
 voicing Public Ideas, as they can get no
 greater exposure in the current system.

 This is not about revolution. Or about
 creating a group or movement around a
 group's ideas. It is about things we all
 face as human beings, and making these part
 of the national and international discourse.
 So, instead of 2nd grade reading levels for
 children being the main campaign topic for
 the US Presidential Debates, War, Energy,
 Pollution, Poverty, Inequality, would be
 what the larger issues are to be addressed.

 It is about control. It is worth taking the
 heat, taking the hate-mail, for this effort
 to change the discourse, from privately-
 controlled exchanges to publicly defined
 goals and objectives. This is a chance unlike
 any other. Profane, yes. Dangerous in its
 consequences, for both an avalanche-effect
 and for the Spammers. But it could also have
 a Positive Impact. And not everything is about
 individuals, and individuals' ideas. Some things
 we share in common. Not universalization by
 differentiation, but by our common bonds.

 -anon.

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