Re: <nettime> Twitter does not cause revolution, people do

[Goran Maric <goranmaric58@hotmail.com>]

Mark,

There is a quite interesting paradox in what you are saying, though this
argument is not directed against you at all, it was just initiated by your
writing. And what I am going to say is something that is occupying my mind
for the last few years . What actually took my attention is this point
where you are counting all these books and then we get to the point where
you say, "I am told that it is about to be re-printed in Chinese, how about
Arabic?" and then keep adding two additional writings, I believe.
 
Though my question might have a dose of humor in the way I am asking it, it
deals with things that are anything but humorous . Maybe we should ask
people of Egypt, Tunisia, and the rest who are going quite successfully
after their horrendously corrupted regimes, to write a book and translate
it for us, the residents of the western democracies, how did they get
organized that well, how did they stayed that disciplined and, at the end
most importantly how were they able to get rid of their corrupted
government?  We, in the west, have all these books written, I could say
almost about anything, we can say whatever we want (?), we can go and do
demonstrations (?), but, it seems to me, we, in the west, just can't CHANGE
anything, wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, or even to prosecute just one
individual criminal bankster?
 
People, especially here, in the USA, mainly ordinary blue or white collar
workers were brought to the point where they are accepting public standards
of discourse delivered to us through the Main Stream Media as the proper
common sense of the direction of the discussion that is totally against
ourselves blue or white collars working people. At the same time we have
access to the info, all that knowledge that critically discuss about these
issues, and yet we fail to do any real change?
 
Here, in the USA there are 40 million people without health insurance.
40,000 people are dying on a yearly basis due to the luck of it. My mother
is a very sick person, and she is on Medicare.  I am sorry for the rest of
the world, maybe my countrymen, the Americans, will know what I am talking
about. It is a kind of state public health program for elderly and sick.  I
spent last three days trying to find a doctor that does accept this type of
government insurance. Finally I found it, and we were sent back to this
Public Hospital. This hospital, and the poor souls in there, ...it is a
picture one should come to the USA, and film it.  And it is happening in
the country that is able to print whatever book it wants, and then reprint
it in any other language in the world. I guess, we in the western world
still have many things to teach the rest, regardless of horrible state
affairs that is going on here, in our back yard, on everyday basis. 
 
But this is not the end of the story. There is another, even more menacing
struggle going on in this great country of the USA; the country where we
can print any book we want and then translate it to any language we want.
The conditions of people who took the government loans to get education,
here in the US, have gotten tricked with the worst lie I have ever
experienced, and I am personally experiencing it, such as that the higher
education will change, for better, our lives. IT DIDN'T... Rather it made a
living hell of it!
 
Why I am writing all of this. What does it have to the with the post I am
responding to?  Well, I will post this links for the 'nettime' family to
read the real HORROR stories of the people who bought into this tale of the
better future through education. And I hope that it will be redistributed
around the world. ( I might be naive, but it is more than worth trying to
get out there ) http://studentloanjustice.org/victims.htm I ask everyone
who doesn't agree with what I am writing in this letter to go to this link
and read it.

So, now I am back to Mark's sentence, and I will repeat it, "I am told that
it is about to be re-printed in Chinese, how about Arabic?" So, yes, here,
in the west, we can write, speak, sing, demonstrate. Here we can do
whatever we like one could say, right? But at the end of the day, NOTHING
IS CHANGING?! The same old story is going on, HOW and WHY is it so?  Maybe
we really should ask Arabic people to write a book and translate it for us,
so to help us to learn how to CHANGE things. It seems to me we can talk for
the talk sake but the substance of our ability, here in the west, to do
real change is missing. Now, don't get me wrong, does this mean we should
stop talking and writing, absolutely NOT! We should talk, as openly as
possible, and never stop, but also we should really ask ourselves, and not
for the sake to be smarter than the other one, but for our own good sake,
why we can't change anything here at home?  Best,

gORAN

> From: Newmedia@aol.com
> Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2011 09:25:34 -0500
> To: nettime-l@kein.org
> Subject: Re: <nettime> Twitter does not cause revolution, people do
> 
> Web:
> 
> Of course new MEDIA *cause* new behaviors. This type of causality is 
> called FORMAL CAUSE and it has been understood since (at least) Aristotle.
 <...>


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