rebecca l. eisenberg on Sun, 11 May 1997 23:23:50 +0200 (MET DST) |
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<nettime> Tune In, Drop Out: the "hippie=raver?" equation at theJanuary, 1997 Digital Be-In. |
[This piece originally written for David Hudson's REWIRED: Journal of a Strained Net, http://www.rewired.com] "tune in, turn on, drop out" January 20th, 1997 by Rebecca L. Eisenberg As much as we new media types try to deny it, history will find a way to repeat itself. And like most bad movies, it is never as good the second time around. Nothing could provide better evidence of this inevitability than the recent celebration in San Francisco of the 30th anniversary of the Human Be-In. The original and Human Be-In, according to its organizers, Allen Cohen and Michael Bowen, was a "gathering of the tribes" in order to unite the philosophically opposed factions of the San Francisco hedonistic hippies and the violently confrontational Berkeley activists and join them together to create a new kind of political activism. On January 14, 1967, 30,000 counter-culturalists and radicals converged in Golden Gate Park in order to "meet minds" and "question authority." With Timothy Leary at the helm, they "turned on, tuned in, and dropped out," and a revolution - (of sorts) - was in motion. But thirty years later, in the gentrified South of Market San Francisco district, free love is tired, and folk music, passe. In the all-out-for-ourselves internet universe, there are no feuding factions to unite, no Victorian social enforcers to rebel against, and, as to the censorship-happy federal government to oppose - well, we did that last year. Fortunately, memes can be bent, and, in the eyes of the neuvo-Leary-cum-cybernauts, personal computers replace water pipes, bandwidth replaces parkgrounds, and ascii and html serve as fine pixels of Electronic LSD. And thus the idea of the 9th Annual Digital Be-In was born. A Digital Be-In, they discovered, could be more than a corporate-backed showcase of electronic art, providing little service beyond an opportunity for high-tech corporations from Silly Valley a chance to drive north to market their wares. This year's more mature Digital Be-In remembered its roots: it selected a political theme, and invited the world by means of a netcast. It promised to celebrate "Cultural Diversity in Cyberspace." In an industry notorious for its domination by white males, Be-In '97 had the right idea. But it had the wrong audience. Although Jerry Brown was passionate when describing his new grass roots digital effort, and Delores Huerta pointed all to the internet-based Strawberry workers campaign, the congregation consisted primarily of the choir. Had there only been some 20-somethings in the crowd before midnight, the event might actually have produced the impression that the high tech slackerati do care about their fellow humans, and not just about controlling their joystick and their next bag of shrimp chips. So where were those Gen-Xers, the voice of tomorrow? Perhaps following too closely the words of deceased utopian Leary to "think for themselves," most of the 20-somethings stayed home for the speeches and saved their arrival for the beginning of "seminars" - the Be-In buzzwords for "musical celebration." The only thing that should be surprising is that anyone would be surprised. We live in an age where new-media-philes and digital-proto-pundits declare ad nauseam the arrival of an Internet "Revolution" - where freedom reigns supreme in the universal aether playground and memes flow and mutute freely from hub to shining hub. But "revolution" necessarily implies change, and change requires action - hardly the first priority on the to-do list of the post-political dissatisfied slackerati. The true digividual thinks for herself - and stands up to authorities like the "PC Police" - who order them to integrate their start-ups. In right-leaning anarchism, diversity flows from each person stepping up to bat; nevermind those farm workers, nevermind the technologically lacking. "But we are rebelling against the Man!" type the web slingers into their java-based chat forums, surfing the weather pages and selecting their rave gear. Why take part in politics? Taking a stand is so "PC." And organizing a movement is so anti-individualistic. Instead, water bottles in hand, backpacks in tow, they toss on their mini-shirts and baggie slacks, and celebrate themselves to the tune of repetitive drumbeat techno while neon and digital vrml-like patterns splash and spin on screens and walls: "self... selfless... self... selfless...". They form a community alright, but do not take it to arms. Where "selfless" meant "for the good of us all," it now means "unattached to ourselves." To hell with the fact that nothing would better satisfy the "authority" they bemoan than their community of dopey-eyed teenytshirt-wearing blowpop-sucking pixel pushers, "dropping out" before "tuning in." Do not get me wrong. I like a good party as much as the next 20-something. And I too enjoy the thrill of events where if the "Man" and his corporate subsidiaries bring the lasers flashing leftist propaganda while new agers and other addicts smoke norcal outdoor greenbud out of glass pipes. As Emma Goldman put it, "If I can't dance, I don't want your revolution." But make no mistake: this is not a revolution. This is nothing more than a party. We have the free speech. Now somebody ... please talk. © Rebecca L. Eisenberg 1997 All Rights Reserved mars@well.com http://www.bossanova.com/rebeca rebecca.lynn.eisenberg mars@bossanova.com, mars@well.com http://www.bossanova.com/rebeca/ --- # distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@icf.de and "info nettime" in the msg body # URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/ contact: nettime-owner@icf.de