<nettime> Strategy wins Wars and shapes Battles

[Mark Stahlman (via RadioMail) <stahlman@radiomail.net>]

Folks:

Common wisdom and practical experience teaches us that there is nothing so
valuable as uncommon wisdom and nothing so practical as a good theory.

We humans are at war.  Everyday is a battle.  We need a strategy.  We are
in a battle for cyberspace.

The enemy has a strategy.  The enemy's strategy is to abolish humanity. 
The enemy's strategy is to redefine humanity as alienated machine/beasts
and then to convince us all that we were never human to begin with.  The
enemy's tactic is liberation from authority.  Wherever you encounter that
strategy or that tactic, you are dealing with the enemy of humanity.  There
are no exceptions.

Why abolish humanity?  Humans are too unstable and too righteous.  Humans
seek perfection.  Humans invent and create.  Humans know the difference
between good and evil.  Humans know God.  Humans love.  Humans threaten
power.

There is a reason why Nicholas Negroponte's book is called "Being Digital."
 There is a reason why my review of his book was called "Being Human in a
Digital Age."  The reason is that we are enemies.  He wants to eliminate
humanity by liberating it from being human.  I want to repair the damage
done by the artificial split between faith and reason that was plotted by
the Enlightenment.  He wants us all to be free by recognizing our personal
sovereignty.  I want us all to be neccessary by recognizing the sovereignty
of our free associations.

There is a reason why I introduced myself to this association with an essay
titled, "Who Are We: Who Are We Becoming?"  There is a reason why I wrote
"The English Ideology and WIRED Magazine."  There is a reason why I
provoked an 800 message vivisection on the WELL.  And, there's a reason why
I ended that experiment on Good Friday.  That reason is strategy.

Our strategy is to be human.  Our tactic is to locate the neccessity from
which we can never be liberated.

Technology threatens humanity.  Technology permits genetic manipulation. 
Technology permits psychological conditioning.  Technology enslaves us all
by automating our lives and thereby turning us into automatons. Technology
is our enemy's favorite weapon.  "Knowledge is Power" is the enemy's
battlecry in their war to end humanity through liberation from neccessity.

However, technology will/could be our road to victory.  Technology
will/could encourage us to be human, once again.  Technology will/could
allow us to defeat propaganda.  Technology will/could enable us to
articulate a strategy to overturn liberation.  Technology could be the
enemy's biggest mistake.

But, only if we can think strategically.  Only if we can act as humans.

(I expressly forbid Bruce Sterling or anyone else from cross-postiung this
note to the WELL or any related system.  All others should feel free to
post this as they see fit.)

Mark Stahlman
New Media Associates
New York City
newmedia@mcimail.com

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