One fear I have about the internet (and electronic gadgets in general) is that they will (or do) train people to live solipsistically (fake word!), only acknowledging things that they’re familiar and comfortable with. Which doesn’t mean we need to be constantly confronted with things that challenge us or make us uncomfortable, but the more of our perception becomes electronically mediated, the easier it is for us to lose common decency toward each other and just seal ourselves away. I never listen to MP3 players outside my home (sometimes I break this rule) for this reason; too many others in my generation use them to block out other people and the parts of the world they dislike. As for how this ties into the internet. Imagine you’ve walked into a miraculous, magical room, where luminous writing appears on the walls. At first, you’re enthralled; the writing is beautiful, captivating. After a while, you notice that the only writings that ever appears on the walls are your own thoughts. How much value does such a room have? I’d say it has some; it may help you order your thoughts and express them more clearly. But in terms of growth, and good old human contact, you’re essentially talking to yourself.

In other words, protests now matter for TV coverage because they no longer matter and protests have been denuded of any and all substance.

They’re covered to show people how helpless they are. According to the below it’s all over anyway. It’s good to know it’s over so we can move on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XgkeTanCGI

What if control itself is nothing more than ephemera? Won’t come as a surprise to anybody here, but what if there is no such thing as control? Wherein, where are our little liberal niches we’ve been promised , for instance? I remember being told the Internet would bring me closer to my “niche” and I would feel more fulfilled and whole, because all the sociologists in 1996 were basically just excited about being able to see for the first time in their lives a 14.4k image get transmitted from some primitive server out there, “somewhere”. Weren’t we all!?

But I remember on NPR back in the mid 90’s, some liberalese apologist arguing about the importance of the internet and keeping it akin to “The Wild West” as opposed to “regulated like wall street”, because “think of all the gay kids out there who use newsgroups to get the emotional solace they need.” I think today we refer to such shit as “LULZ”. Or something. I don’t fucking know.

Truth is about the Internet, is that we were humans about it — and obviously still are humans about it. Humans first, humans second and humans ad infinitum. I for one kind of believed I could singlehandedly make the Iraq “war” cease when I started “blogging” in the early two-awts. I really did. I thought, bought into and bled the belief that just a few of us could “effect” and “affect” “change”. I thought I could march on the motherfucking streets with a bunch of other people and it would project our value onto the world — because when we came home from our “marches”, the Internet said so — as in “OMFG they DIDN’T cover the march fairly at all!”. The anger and DISBELIEF gave it all a purpose. Now the motherfuckers are covering any and all protest they can — now that they don’t matter. In other words, protests now matter for TV coverage because they no longer matter and protests have been denuded of any and all substance. IN OTHER WORDS. like a bunch of chickens feeding, “they” knew it would go like this. Why? Because EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US lives in some kind of 60’s social-bonded-to-personal paradigm whether we like it or not. Somebody somewhere — a lot of dudes and ladies fo sho, never bought in. Felt above, felt beyond. The true revolutionaries, indeed, are those who rule the roost now — unlike those popularly touted as such. Are they not right in believing so? Where has “intelligence” or “intuition” gotten the lump sum of our ranks anywhere thus far? Add in the “Internet” to “Intelligence” and “Intuition” and you’ve got yourself some kind of alliterative joke. Me me me.

I I I

And has not the Internet turned into a joke when it comes to spending any time?

or realize your own innate wholeness.

Sometimes this happens to me while I’m on the internet. I wonder why I feel so disconnected to what I’m searching for and I realize it’s because I’m full, I have to push the plate away and leave the table.

http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2007/10/27/google-attacks-paid-links/