Re: <nettime> Fw: Enemies of the Future

[Bram Dov Abramson <babramson@telegeography.com>]

>I can't help wondering about the role of the US based business
>media in selling the idea of the US as a place to invest. All
>that relentless stock boosting hype. For a short while those
>prophesies can be perfectly self fulfilling.

Indeed.  But it has at least as much to do, maybe more, with the role of 
*non* U.S. based business media in constructing the U.S. in general, and 
Silicon Valley in particular, as the get-rich mecca of geniuses and 
visionaries.  I never cease to be amazed by stories in trade magazines from 
various points around the industrialized world insisting that local Bright 
Young Things will, if they are serious, migrate to California where it's 
all really happening.

This maps onto linguistic practice too, of course.  Nearly every 
telecom/Internet journalist I have spoken with on the telephone from the 
French trade publications has at some point interrupted or reinflected our 
conversation to demonstrate in no uncertain terms that s/he is happy 
(enthusiastic, even) to speak English, therefore fluent in the language of 
the New Economy.

cheers
Bram

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