Content-Wire.com on Fri, 11 May 2001 09:54:17 +0200 (CEST) |
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<nettime> Election Day!!!! |
Lorenzo, thanks a lot for the depiction. I heard about the book - now I have a vivid impression of whatz in it Sounds funny to me. I cant believe people take the guy seriously. Now I fear that Berluscao may want to take control over the catholic church. After all they have a big global network already in place and football is god for most italians (anyone has a father or brothers who can show this - simple, disengaged people with BIG television sets they go back to every evening to get doctrine from ) Of course you know, and other nettimers know full well what I think and I shall not repeat myself on that. Glad others now can see what our problem is.. The questions that spring to mind are the following: 1) Do the Italians know that the book (and its shipment before election) is propaganda? 2) Does the average citizen know what propaganda is, what are the examples in the past of pervasive propaganda campaigns and what are the risks? 3) Did the Germans recognise that Hitler was blinding them with propaganda when he came into power? ( I do NOT here intend to draw a parallel between the two political leaders, but YES I intend to draw a parallel between the narcotized political and civil consciousness of the two electorates) The responsibility lies primarily in the educational and political establishment that FAILED to create and maintain civil awareness and education. Scenario ONE Let's assume that the Italians read the book and actually like it - instead of laughing or being scared at the prospect of having a leader like that . Let's assume that he wins the election. I think the Council of Europe should then invoke the relevant legislation and intervene to make sure that 1) the legislation that does not allow the owner of broadcasting stations to go into politics (Marco Travaglio - author of the recent book on Berlusconi's money - told me there is a law dated 1947 or 57 or something) 2) That the trials against Berulsconi are continued under European jurisdiction, cause the italian judicial system is either inept or corrupt or both. But is the Council of Europe a safe place to go, can they and will they act ? If not, shall we doubt of its integrity? Scenario TWO Let's assume that Rutelli wins, will he be able to put measures in place so that we do not have the same problem again in five years? maybe the economy and the politics in Italy will fail again, and Berlusconi, or his children, will be up for parliament again. The problem is that we do not have a political class ready to run the country, and the system is too corrupt to find and execute any remedial to this huge and dangerous distortion, either way There are a couple of other possible approaches: 1) take over global television networks - a bit extreme I agree ( a mali estremi estremi rimedi) <g> 2) get key people in the *system* to become aware of the problems and start working from the inside the system to create and maintain a healtier, more critical and more aware information society for the future But we will have to keep a close eye on the country, make sure we know what they are aiming at. We then need to work with individuals and organisations internationally to make sure that we spread awareness, which we are obviously doing with the help of free thinkers on this list. Society is already changing, a lot and very fast. Five years ago, you and I and other respected members of the networked society would have not been having this *conversation* Our work is important and we must find ways to bring fringe, alternative free thinking (ours) into mainstream society , into the organisations and institutions that run the country. Maybe institutions and organisations need to change, to become less stale, less apathic, more dynamic. After are we all radicals, individualists in some way, while society is headed by conformists and either sheep types or smart arses. I hope that will change. Now that I know that we can communicate at such widespread level, I am not so afraid If Berlusconi wins, the political regime in Italy could be outside the constitution. I believe the constituion somewhere states that the political, legistalitve and judicialry must be independent and integer. We may have to take legal advice from whoever is responsible for maintaing constitutioanl rights inside and outside the country,, and take it from there Hoping for the best, but ready for the worse Paola Di Maio ================================== Paola Di Maio Managing Editor www.content-wire.com ================================= At home in the content universe Your news are our news # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net