Patrice Riemens on Sat, 10 Mar 2007 13:43:57 +0100 (CET) |
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<nettime> Dutch shocklogs revisited |
Pity the Wikipedia entry about shocklogs was deleted (repeatedly!) and became the subject of a somewhat artificial controversy, also on this list. The issue at stake deserved better, as can be seen from recent developments, in the Netherlands at last. But first I wish it to be stated that the entry submitted was very deficient in itself, as it did not provide adequate context and (cultural) translation. I hope to remedy it somewhat with the folowing recent story. This morning issue of the Dutch national daily 'De Volkskrant' (progressive-lite) had an interview with the director of the (provincial) high-school where the latest 'shocklog' related incident and subsequent scandal took place: a pupil had convinced his classmates to all bring the Hitler salute and filmed it on his mobile phone. The clip was then placed on 'Geenstijl.nl', 'enjoyed' a vast audience, and the ceiling came down on the allegedly peaceful, tolerant, non-fascist etc. Dutch society. ('Geenstijl' can be inadequately translated as 'Not Done', 'No Cricket' of maybe best, in Malaysianglish: 'Faktap, lah!'. Other 'shocklogs' sitenames, left untranslated in the contentious wikipedia entry, are 'Volkomenkut.nl' = totallyfuckedup.nl; Retecool.nl = asscool.nl, and a few more I can't remember - but you can got idea) As far as I know, 'shocklogs', which enjoy a tremendous popularity, are a uniquely Dutch thing in their local manifestation. With gory pictures, cranky quotes, weird videoclips and assorted mud-slinging at anything that moves, 'respectable' or not, they reflect the solidly ingrained Dutch tradition known as 'kankeren' (litterally 'cancering'). 'Kankeren' is a heightened form of complaining, can be very violent in its (verbal) manifestation, but is in no way intended to address, even less to redress, the issue it refers to. Its sole purpose is to vent grievances everyone knows one can do very little about - Dutch culture is famously fatalistic in its own way, the economy being seen as a meteorological phenomenon, social hierarchies are perceived as divinely ordained, and "Nobody gets handed out the programme of life's concert beforehand". Now that the new media are not that new anymore, the digital version of 'kankeren' is carried on 'shocklogs' with gay abandon. Shocklogs are probably part of what Ms Mabel van Oranje, wife of the Royal Johan Friso and advocacy director of Soros' Open Society Institute, defines in an interview with the same paper as 'irresponsible media'. This must be read as 'responsible to no one, and also not to society at large', the same thing the high school director complained about (he approached Geenstijl.nl to get the clip taken of, or at least publish a rejoinder, without success). Due to their popularity, 'shocklogs' however, can also work in a more positive way. An instance I know about is the campaign against voting computers launched by a group around Rop Gonggrijp (of Hacktic/ XS4ALL/ Cryptophone etc fame), which got a definitive - and defining - popularity lift of when the (filmed) hack of the Nedap voting computer was broadcast (indeed, 2,5 lakh downloads!) on, again, Geenstijl.nl Nedap and the government were thoroughly 'put in the piss' as the Dutch expression goes, and that was, of course, prime 'Geenstijl' stuff. 'Shocklogs' have evolved into a fact of life in the Netherlands, and like so many other idiosyncrasies, one has make do with them, for the worst (they demolish your cause and your friends) and for the best (they show no more respect to your ennemies and their f$#@^&*ing ideas) cheers, patrizio and Diiiinoooos! # 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