Paul, while I harbor many of the same sentiments, I would caution you against adopting and Us vs. Them attitude. There is no monolithic power cleverly manipulating the world. Just various gangs of power hungry apes trying to maintain control and profit. They don't trust the populace and they don't trust each other. They spawn vast, innefficient bureaucracies which become so convoluted and unwieldy that they contribute more chaos than order. Simple systems theory shows control mechanisms always harbor the seed of chaos. Within the greatest order lies the rising tide of change. Control will always fail in the end.

Look to history. Empires rise and fall. The ever-increasing availability of technology and the free flow of digital information has shed more light on the evils of The Empire than ever before. They can no longer hide in the shadows and pull the strings. These interests will fight, for sure, but not enough to hurt their profits. WW3 would be very bad for the economy. In the end they will be forced to adapt to the social economy of the New Age.

Thanks Chris for the sentiments, and I appreciate the reality check - you are right.

Even though I am in good spirits, I do fall prey sometime to feeling an "us" vs. "them". Thanks for pointing that out. I have to say though that I have met many people in elite circles and that is precisely how they view the world - them and us "masses". The level of disdain they have for most of us is shocking. They see "Spin" as absolutely necessary, and have no problem whatsoever in feeding us all lines of bullshit to suit their own greedy ends. They want it all, and they will stop at nothing to get it. I have no doubt there are competing factions fighting it out amongst themselves in elite circles, but when the day comes to a close, it is the non-elite they jointly despise. This is not a trap I am falling into, but an insulated reality they live in every single day. I just hope the rest of us don't get slaughtered in the name of them protecting their little bubble.

Ivx23 is right when he says that "the ever-increasing availability of technology and the free flow of digital information has shed more light on the evils of The Empire than ever before. They can no longer hide in the shadows and pull the strings." This is absolutely true and will only become more true as time goes on. Information is becoming more and more free.

The internet is already becoming a more powerful intelligence gathering and analysis tool than anything else the world has ever seen. Check out this article at kuro5hin.org:
- http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/5/15/22827/0477
- google cache: http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:NfEyr-Lnc08J:www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/5/15/22827/0477+kuro5hin+nick+berg&hl=en

Also, two important pictures to understanding what's going on are the photos of a white American male and a white American female smiling and giving a thumbs-up over a dead arab:

- http://www.antiwar.com/news/?articleid=2444

If I wanted to start a war, that's how I'd do it. Send out pictures to both sides to inflame the populations and ensure that war will go on for generations. Hell, arranged wars by the ruling elites of "enemy" nations has been going on since the days of chinese dynasties.

These photos (and the rest of the prizon photos) got out on purpose. Someone wants to start a war. Cheney has all sorts of incentives to want to do so. Also think about who's benefitting from this war: oil companies, military companies, the Saudi's (think about how high the price of oil is right now. Is the Bush administration very closely linked to all 3? Yeah, they are. There are some groups that are making literally TRILLIONS of dollars off this war right now.

Saddamn was set up as well: the US *gave* him the weapons.

There is much more, but I don't have time. Bush isn't going to get away with it. Cheney might, though.

I'm not sure if Bush is Cheney's pawn or if Bush is actually extremely smart and is using his image of dumbness to get away with things that people wouldn't suspect him of doing. I suspect that he's stupid, but I'm not sure.

A blog starts to die when it becomes just like
the other 90% of the blog sphere that repeats
over and over again the latest variant of what
Karl Marx said 150 years ago, which is capital
uses it's imbecilic pawns in the government to
start wars for profit.

Justin,

I recognize the risk of diminishing a blog's value when politics are discussed, which is why I have only done so on three occassions, with this post being the only real "negative" one. So I think it's a bit of an overstatement to make that assertion in light of the tremendous volume of high quality postings on Future Hi over the last three months that make almost no mention of politics at all.

I choose to post this, becuase I think it's quite possible we are at a critical moment in history when events could either spiral out of control or act as an "awakening" towards a more enlightened society. I think a significant part of this is people's understanding of what's REALLY going on. The facist apparatus of the elite depends largley on sufficient numbers of people believing the propoganda. If enough people challenge the "word" of our government and question what's really going on, then there is a chance that they won't accept a police state in wake of another terrorist attack, especially with the possibility that it might be our own government who committed the act.

As for capital, I'm basically pro free-market, and see that network culture can eventually tranform the flow of capital along more ethical and democratic lines. See Participatory Capitalism on the right hand side bar for relevant posts.

It looks like someone needs to re-read the email they sent me when I was lamenting similarly, Paul.

You helped me make a conscious choice to look for the positive and give the future a chance again.

Subtle control has been maintained through the traditional media channels, spinning "news" to create support for warfare and imperialism. The growing ubiquity of the internet is drawing eyes away from traditional, corporate-controlled, media channels towards information mediated by the individual. The personal computer may very well be the slumbering giant, the LSD of the i-age, that will radically undermine power structures. I don't think these power structures have yet grasped this fact.

Chris,

In light of what you're saying regarding the liberating potential of the network, what do you think of "trusted" computing, DRM, and Digital Identity? All of these it seems are precisely what the corporate-state apparatus could use to co-opt any so-called 'digital revolution' you speak of.

I don't worry about them so much. These technologies are all based around commerce & copyright and continue to meet much resistance, both in public discourse and in practical implementation. They will be adopted by corporate interests trying to secure their products (& business networks), and by people making their living off of intellectual property like music or novels, but attempts to force them on users seem destined to fail. Furthermore, there will always be someone who can outsmart attempts to tag & track users (PGP is a common example). If such technologies did manage to put pressure on the free flow of information in the web, other webs will pop up, secured networks will flourish, and relatively simple hacks to mitigate spyware would be commonplace. China is a good example of a State that is struggling to control information. Profits decline when you start arresting your consumer base. (Witness music sales and the RIAA.)

Elites may be trying to run things, but they can only do it through

Information wants to be free. The elite are few, the masses are growing more and more aware of their own power. The global network is simply an extension of the human web of communication. It is inherently non-linear, recursive, and holographic and, hence, impossible to control.

Thanks Chris for the hopeful responses, it is appreciated. Your last comment has hald a sentence, ending with, "can only do it through.." what was the rest?

Oops, I was trying to edit that out. Posting during a busy work day...

interesting comments I have no doubt that Bush is being manipulated by henchmen smarter than he is and I have no doubt that the end result could result in a war.

I think that information will continue to be a source of strength for the non-elite masses.

Those pictures made me so angry I don't want to even talk about it, I see war looming on the horizon.

I am well aware of Future Hi's goals to remain an inspiring and thought provoking blog focusing on many transhumanist memes, but I respect Paul's choice for showing gritty reality as well, because we won't be able to aspire to the ideals of hedonic engineering if we don't address the ugliness that surrounds us as well.

Sorry, but I have fallen into the "us" versus "them" frame of mind. The patterns of right-wing thinking, coupled with fervent fundamentalism, have legislaive and decision-maikng power at the moment, aided and abetted by corporate media and oil industry cronyism.

I think they thought they knew what they were doing, and that it would be easier. What often comes to mind for me are all the times when I think that "important" people, or people "up there" in some hierarchy, have something special, such as insight, intelligence, etc. 99 out of 100 times when I have met and engaged with such people, i find myself thinking "how thw heck did you get here ?"

It's structural, and it could not have happened without a lot of propaganda and machinations. "They" are not like me, and don't have the same values and carry a different kind of cynicism - I like to believe my own personal cynicism is of the soft, woolly-headed, bleeding heart type of liberalism (which is essentially non grata in the USA these days, victim of cooption of language.

Television is more dangerous than most people realize