[lbo-talk] HB

[// ravi]

On May 3, 2013, at 9:23 AM, Julio Huato <juliohuato at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> IMO, the Twitter-good and Twitter-bad crowds share the same basic
> assumption: that in and by themselves new technologies must provide
> immediate remedy to social and/or personal ills.  To the extent the
> expectation is met for some, success; otherwise, failure.  But no,
> they mustn't.  Mostly, technologies reproduce and amplify the existing
> social tendencies, e.g. class struggle.  They may shift the
> benefit/cost ratio -- a little or a lot -- in favor of one or another
> side in conflict.  But these shifts open possibilities that are yet to
> be realized -- or, viewed from the other side, frustrated.  It'd be
> interesting to see how Twitter, etc. is helping (or not) the left in
> different settings.  I'd expect to find a mixed bag with preponderance
> on the side of failure.  Everywhere, a portion of the left has a
> Luddite temperament (all new technologies will be used to reinforce
> the crap), which helps to turn the Twitter-bad scenario into a
> self-fulfilling prophecy.  It's as if those who use Twitter have not
> only to use it productively, but also must prove to other leftists
> that using it is not going to corrupt their souls.  Non-leftists don't
> have to carry that baggage.
> 

Good stuff, and I would add one more thing that I have been (perhaps mistakenly?) arguing for a while: if anything, the pressure should be applied in an opposite direction. Those who use Twitter should have to prove anything, but rather, those who do not (and here I mean the spectrum of Twitter, FB, etc) should reconsider their decision to opt out of a technology that is becoming an important method of communicating/exchanging/spreading news, opinion, propaganda, memes, etc.

I am not coming down hard on my friend Joanna or others here :-)… or rather I am exaggerating my argument above for [attempted] humour. I understand we all have our styles and not everyone is into posting random shit to social networks as I am, and that despite Arab Spring and what not, social networks aren’t going to be at the helm of revolution (see my Tweet regarding that :-)).

	—ravi