Internet & social control

[Malignd]

<<I'm curious.  Of those folks here who don't agree
with Pynchon's statement about the Internet in the
Foreword to _1984_, how do you support the argument
that Pynchon's wrong?>>

It isn't a question of right or wrong, since it's a
prediction about the future.

The criticism is to a different point -- that to look
at the internet and see only a development that
"promises" social control, is not particularly nuanced
or interesting.  It is also wierdly blind to the
amazing and positive changes already effected by the
internet.  It's this that seems to me and others
cranky.

<< ... but I've yet to see anybody make a good case
...>>

This is simply false.  Numerous arguments have been
put forth, most speaking to the difficulty, even
inability, of anyone establishing control over
something so large, international, and decentralized. 


Your attempting merely to dismiss these arguments and
those who make them (with little more rebuttal than
"Pynchon feels differently" and monolithic
generalities about the means and ends of the
government and the military) passes no judgement on
those arguments' strength or quality, only on your
inability forcefully to engage them.
  


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