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Quote for Today (6): Stranger Than Fiction

Journalist Neil Strauss on calling up a death cult to spend New Year’s Eve with them:

The great thing about real life is that it will always surprise you. Nothing ever turns out the way you expect. I suppose that’s why I write nonfiction. If this were a movie, the organization would already have traced my number, bugged my phone, and kidnapped my brother. Instead, I was being transferred to the publicist and media relations executive for a death cult.

Taken from “Emergency — This Book Will Save Your Life”, New York: Harper 2009, p. 25.

You’re a Novice to Public Dissent? Or Satire? Christopher Hitchens and Jon Stewart recommend: Cut (through) the Crap!

In “Letters to a Young Contrarian”, his guideline for those practicing the art of public dissent, commentator and essayist Christopher Hitchens explained the role of the public intellectual in (post-) modern society as follows:

[T]he job of supposed intellectuals is to combat oversimplification or reductionism and to say, well, actually it’s more complex than that. At least, that’s part of the job. However, you must have noticed how often certain “complexities” are introduced as a means ob obfuscation. Here it becomes necessary to [...] proclaim that, actually, things are less complicated than they appear.

In the current issue of Sojourners Magazine (you’ll need to sign-up to be able to read the piece, however it’s free of charge), satirist Jon Stewart argues likewise:

Tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may. Too often the role of government and corporations is to obscure their real argument, and we feel like the role of media and the role of editorial authorship is to re-clarify those things.

“Tell it like it is” — that’s all there is to brilliant political commentary?  I’m sure things must be just a little more complicated… or should I say: obfusciated and obscure?

Bundestagswahlkampf der Union: Internetverbot für Raubkopierer und/oder DSL für alle?

Kai Biermann hat den Entwurf des Wahlprogramms der Unionsparteien gelesen und schreibt auf Zeit Online über die Netzpolitik von CDU/CSU das Folgende:

“Wir möchten nach britischem und französischem Vorbild Rechtsverletzungen effektiv unterbinden, indem die Vermittler von Internetzugängen Rechtsverletzer verwarnen und nötigenfalls ihre Zugänge sperren”, schreibt die Union. Das ist das sogenannte “Three-Strikes”-Modell: Wer illegal Musik tauscht oder Software herunterlädt, dem sollen die Provider den Netzzugang sperren dürfen. Das oberste französische Verfassungsgericht hat ein entsprechendes Gesetz gerade gestoppt, da es gegen Grundrechte verstieß. Trotzdem nennt es die Union explizit als Vorbild.

Hm. Neulich hieß es noch auf CDU.de:

Die CDU will eine flächendeckende Versorgung mit schnellen Internetanschlüssen erreichen. Jedermann müsse Internet und E-Mail nutzen können, forderte Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel auf der MediaNight 2009 am Dienstag in Berlin. Der Zugang zu den elektronischen Medien sei heute genauso wichtig wie ein Wasser- oder Stromanschluss.

[ZOn-Artikel via Nerdcore]

Re: Re: The Remarkable Career… Obama Passed the Geek-Test? Then I’d Like to Hear What Hodgman Has to Say About Karl Rove…

Again, nothing new, but as Frontline documentary “Karl Rove – The Architect” eloquently shows, Karl Rove was considered a “geek” when he ran the College Republicans in the late 60’s and later applied market research strategies reminiscent of Steve Baker’s Numerati when he helped the GOP win the mid-term elections of 2002.

Recommended Reading: How the “War on Drugs” turned into a “War without Borders” (Foreign Policy/NYT)

Earlier this year, Foreign Policy magazine published a piece on the deteriorating state of affairs in Mexico. South of the US border, drug-related violence escalates, prompting the editors to add Mexico to their list of the “axis of upheaval” — along with states like post-credit-crunch Russia and Somalia –, their thesis being that unstable and failing states are the biggest challenge to international security today.

Now the New York Times follows suit and publishes a series on what they call the “War without Borders”, spill-over effects of Mexican drug rule. Today’s remarkable piece is about American teenagers who sign up as killers for Mexican cartels. The author’s conclusion:

In the minds of many Americans, the Rio Grande divides Mexico, a corrupt land where drug cartels often seem to have the upper hand, from the United States, a nation of law and order, where the authorities try to keep criminal gangs in check.

But the reality on the border is much more complex. The Mexican drug cartels recruit young men from both countries and operate their smuggling and murder-for-hire rings on both sides of the divide, though under slightly different rules of engagement.

The market dynamics go as follows: Americans provide cash and weapons (Mexico’s gun laws are stricter than those of Texas where according to the NYT gun stores flourish around the Southern border). And Mexicans provide marijuana and meth from their own farms and laboratories, and cocaine from South America. It’s not a new phenomenon, but apparently one that’s getting more and more out of hand. As Sam Quinones wrote in Foreign Policy:

[In Mexico, 2008 ended] with a body count of more than 5,300 dead. That’s almost double the death toll from the year before—and more than all the U.S. troops killed in Iraq since that war began.

Re: The Remarkable Career… John Hodgman on Barack Obama’s Geek Credentials and the Culture War Between Jocks and Geeks

Since I actually missed this up until recently, let me re-post it here even though pretty much all of you must have already seen it elsewhere:

Obviously, despite all the talk about Obama’s eGovernance, which in itself adds to the presidents geek credentials, John Hodgman takles a difficult question: is Barack Obama truly a geek? Can a man who grew up in Hawaii, who is an eloquent speaker and a dedicated basketball player truly be a geek? Associated Press asked this question already before Obama took office and came to a so-so conclusion, just like Hodgman. Others have pointed out how Obama tends (and/or should continue) to surround himself with intellectuals (oh, and with a double-ivy wife!). Anyways, let me just add two things.

The first one is something I’ve intended to blog about for quite some time now. Question: has anyone who watched “The Power of Nightmares”, Adam Curtis’ recommendable BBC documentary series on neoconservatism and islamist terrorism, noticed how once in a while Star Wars figurines can be seen in the living rooms and offices of important neocon thinkers? Download the series here and tell me what you think. I couldn’t quite decide whether it must have been Curtis who seated his interviewees in order to discretely poke fun at them or whether America is a geek nation, not just on the left but on the right as well.

Secondly, since Glenn McDonald has pointed out how Stephen Colbert is a prime example of geekdom isn’t it interesting that he, too, talked at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner not to long ago? It must be an event that tends to attract geeks…

[Thanks to mmmatze]

The Remarkable Career of the “Geek”: How a Word That Once Meant “Degenerate Freak” Came to Describe the Rulers of our World.

There are few things in life that change as rapidly as the meaning of vocab in a language that’s as vibrant as contemporary English. Still, consider this: In 1960 (when their “Pocket Dictionary of American Slang” was first published), Harold Wentworth and Stuart Berg Flexner, two guys who set out to chronicle American slang, found no relevant meaning of “geek” that is even remotely related to what this term has come to mean today:

geek. n. 1. A carnival or circus performer, considered a freak, who performs sensationally disgusting acts that a normal person would not, e.g., eating or swallowing live animals. [...] The geek has a low status in the carnival and is usually considered mentally deranged or perverted. 2. A sideshow freak [...] 3. A degenerate; one who will do anything, however disgusting, in order to satisfy or get money to satisfy degenerate desires. [...] 4. A drunk.

Now obviously, in the 1980s people who were described as “geeks” inherited a low social status and were considered far from hip, which may explain why the term that was used to describe them basically meant “disgusting and degenerate freak” two decades earlies. However, compare that to an April 2009 cover story of New Statesman:

Or compare it to what pop culture writer Glenn McDonald had to say about geeks in early May 2009:

It’s been clear for several years now that, in the battle for cultural relevancy, the geeks have won. The evidence is overwhelming and all around us. The box office dominance of fantasy, sci-fi and comic book movies, say: Heroes, Lost and Battlestar Galactica. Stephen Colbert. The entire video game industry. The Internet.

Oh, BTW, it’s not only Colbert and SciFi: Quentin Tarantino, one of the most celebrated directors of our time probably wouldn’t be able to shoot the same movies hadn’t it been for his weeks and months of slaving away in a cheap video store and watching crap movies when he was young. If we take a look at pop music, the pioneers of electronic music certainly can be described as geeks while even in rock music geekdom (as in: being white, skinny, and knowing and citing a lot of old stuff in order to compensate for the lack of other impressive features) is quite prevalent. And even Little Boots is considered a nerd/geek in the current issue of Der Spiegel.

So it’s not just that those former “degenerate freaks” rule our world. Today, they’re also setting the standards for what’s hip. And that’s a quite remarkable development…

Ach, Piraten… die Diskussion um Jörg Tauss geht am Kern der Piratenpartei vorbei, die vor allem eine Protestpartei sind.

Interessant: die Diskussion der Piratenpartei-Sympathisanten über den Beitritt des Ex-SPD-Bundestagsabgeordneten Jörg Tauss. Interessant, aber auch (wie oft, wenn im Netz über Politik diskutiert wird): ein bisschen gruselig. Die deutsch-linke Neigung zur Selbstzerfleischung tritt selten so pointiert auf, wie in den Kommentaren derjenigen, die den Piraten spontan den Ausverkauf vorwerfen und ihren Austritt verkünden. Ähnlich unbegründet: die Furcht vor dem PR-GAU, sollte Tauss ob der bei ihm gefundenen Kinderpornographie schuldig gesprochen werden.

Seien wir doch mal ehrlich. Niemand braucht noch eine neue Partei. Es gibt grundsätzlich nur einen guten Grund, warum die Piraten existieren. Nämlich um auf ein Wählerpotential aufmerksam zu machen und Anreize für die größeren Parteien zu schaffen, dieses Wählerpotential für sich zu gewinnen. Deshalb ist es egal, ob die Partei einen guten Ruf hat und ob sie für die Bundestagswahl überhaupt Kandidaten aufstellt. Die Wahl der Piratenpartei ist eine qualifizierte Protestwahl. Das ist nichts Schlimmes. Eine Stimme für die Piratenpartei ist im Einzelfall weniger “verschwendet” als eine Stimme für die Volksparteien oder die in punkto Internet seltsam unentschlossenen Grünen — denn sie hilft im Idealfall, vernachlässigte Themen und Positionen in den politischen Diskurs einzuspeisen.

Jörg Tauss hat die Protestfunktion der Piraten erkannt, als er - offenbar ohne Rücksprache mit der Partei und gleich in der Öffentlichkeit – seine Mitgliedschaft und Kandidatur angeboten hat. Stimmt, als Politiker und MdB ist er aufgrund der gegen ihn erhobenen Anklagen wohl verbraucht. Aber letztlich geht das am Kern der Piratenpartei vorbei.

Du bist schuld, dass Dieter Gorny die Popkomm absagen musste.

Dieter Gorny sagt die Popkomm ab:

Die digitale Krise schlägt voll auf die Musikwirtschaft durch. Viele Unternehmen können es sich wegen des Diebstahls im Internet nicht mehr leisten, an der Popkomm teilzunehmen.

Interessant, dass diese Ansage nicht Jahre früher kam, sondern erst jetzt, wo es mit iTunes et. al. solide funktionierende, kostenpflichtige Vertriebsmöglichkeiten für Popmusik im Netz gibt. Schwierig, sich da des spontanen Verdachtes zu erwehren, dass es sich hier neben dem Verschleiern eigenen unternehmerischen Scheiterns als Messebetreiber auch um eine ungelenke Geste handelt, um Politiker zu beeindrucken. Die sollen schließlich dem Netz endlich Herr werden und die von Gorny schon länger geforderte Kontrollinfrastruktur weiter ausbauen, deren erster Stein nun ja gelegt worden ist.

So oder so: am Ende ist womöglich doch das Netz am Ende der Popkomm schuld. Weil sich sowohl die Unterhaltungsindustrie, als auch ihre Zielgruppen und nicht zuletzt die Vernetzungsmöglichkeiten beider so weit ausdifferenziert haben, dass niemand mehr teure und behäbige Großveranstaltungen braucht.