"Adding Up the Costs of Cyberdemocracy"

[Paul Mackin]

Freud wouldn't have been greatly surprised by the "group polarization"
observed on the Internet.

"It is clearly not easy for men to give up the satisfacton of this
inclination to aggression. They do not feel comfortable without it. The
advantage which a comparatively small cultural group offers of allowing
this instinct an outlet in the form of hostility against intruders is
not to be dispised."

Though not quoted here the same NYTimes article also touches on the
question of internet privacy and the potential for social control
although the  good news for privacy advocates is not mentioned .
Cheap computers now give private citizens the power to encode private
messages in a way that even the NSA  would be hardpressed to decode.

d            P.


Dave Monroe

> >From "Adding Up the Costs of Cyberdemocracy" by
> Alexander Stille, The New York Times, Saturday, June
> 2nd, 2001 ...
>
> As Cass Sunstein, a professor of law at the University
> of Chicago, saw himself being skewered on various Web
> sites discussing his recent book, "Republic.com," he
> had the odd satisfaction of watching some of the
> book's themes unfold before his eyes. On the
> conservative Web site "FreeRepublic.com," the
> discussion began by referring relatively mildly to Mr.
> Sunstein's book about the political consequences of
> the Internet as "thinly veiled liberal." But as the
> discussion picked up steam, the rhetoric of the
> respondents, who insisted that they had not and would
> not read the book itself, became more heated.
> Eventually, they were referring to Mr. Sunstein as "a
> nazi" and a "pointy headed socialist windbag."
>
> The discussion illustrated the phenomenon that Mr.
> Sunstein and various social scientists have called
> "group polarization" in which like-minded people in an
> isolated group reinforce one another's views, which
> then harden into more extreme positions. Even one of
> his critics on the site acknowledged the shift.
> "Amazingly enough," he wrote, "it looks like Sunstein
> has polarized this group into unanimous agreement
> about him." An expletive followed.
>
> To Mr. Sunstein, such polarization is just one of the
> negative political effects of the Internet, which
> allows people to filter out unwanted information,
> tailor their own news and congregate at specialized
> Web sites that closely reflect their own views. A
> "shared culture," which results partly from exposure
> to a wide range of opinion, is important for a
> functioning democracy, he argues.  But as the role of
> newspapers and television news diminishes, he wrote,
> "and the customization of our communications universe
> increases, society is in danger of fragmenting, shared
> communities in danger of dissolving."
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/02/technology/02INTE.html
>
> And see ...
>
> Sunstein, Cass R.  Republic.com.
>    Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2001.
>
> Thanks to Doug for mentioning this a while back ...
>
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