The political and governmental capacity of the Internet is evolving so rapidly that it outpaces all the analysts currently acknowledged as experts in the fields of international relations, political economy and foreign policy. Every world trade meeting, high end newspaper editorial, and talking head session coming out of the MSM outlets looks moribund and woefully out of touch. Acknowledged authorities on these matters go on about the gold bubble and the price of oil, unemployment and the Arab Spring. A China slowdown and tax policy. Nuclear Japan and nuclear Iran. Analyses are politically skewed, and the audience is expected to be passive. Viewers and readers are meant to believe what they are politically inclined to be told, whether or not those politics still reflect reality.
No one in the halls of power observes that the pitched (and remarkably boring) right-left battle between global elites simply does not address current conditions. To start, take the growing gap between rich and poor, the growing sections of a
crumbling, alienated middle class in developed countries, and the disenfranchised everywhere else. The broad consensus attained through prosperity (or its promise) has been pulverized. The old Roman trick of bread and circuses no longer keeps the mob pacified. The Internet itself became part of a series of marketed distractions, petty consumerist addictions, and cheap sham equalities. A gadget in every hand. But after the recession hit, neither right nor left formulas could hasten recovery, and the popularity of hacktivism increased dramatically. The online distraction became an obsession, and then almost overnight, the foundation of a new world.
Meanwhile, the factor that authorities and commentators should try to understand, Cyberpolitics, is acknowledged by pundits via a superficial acquaintance with Julian Assange's shenanigans; or it is skimmed over out of ignorance; or it is derisively poo-pooed as the preserve of basement-dwellers and politically naive computer freaks, whose facility with the mysteries of technology is at worst unnerving. Since the province of computer hacktivism is virtual, it is deemed far removed from the gritty, physical day-to-day modern governmental realities of political parties, fund-raising, friendly think tanks and partial NGOs, lobby groups, private interests, intelligence reports, and back room deals. Instead of looking at and encouraging the positive governmental potential of the Internet, Cyberpolitics has been treated negatively as a security issue.
Being a hacker target had, until recently, been deemed by firms simply to be a security problem for their in-house IT staff or for an out-of-house IT security contractor (that is, until the security contractors got hacked -
it was embarrassing). In that climate, hackers become king.
One glance at
Twitter's #antisec feed, and anyone schooled in the history of politics, and more importantly, the structure of government, would start to wonder whether movements on the Internet could become
the Millennial power groups. Beyond their pet causes, hacktivists might reshape democracy and anti-democracy, as well as the very form of the state.
On the one hand, I see why
someone would tweet: "The time to act is now. If youre waiting for November, then you still buy into the lies. There r no political parties." It is not just disenchantment and a bad economy. It is not just - as some critics have said - bad character of entitled youth. The Internet is changing the fabric of statehood itself.
On the other hand, the blind support hacktivists receive is troubling. They adore Orwellian language:
LulzSec and
Anonymous have
joined forces for
Operation Antisec. The forces marshaled under this banner are following a pretty straightforward radical political agenda that appeals to any angry youth culture. On Friday, Anonymous
targeted a private prison Website in Florida. Another attack took down an Ohio-based FBI affiliate, with its compromised site playing the 1995
Dangerous Minds Soundtrack hit,
the Coolio redux of "
Pastime Paradise" (incidentally, the song is based on J. S. Bach's
Prelude No. 2 in C minor (BWV 847):
listen here and
here, and compare
here and
here - the provenance of modern media is amazing). WikiLeaks and Anonymous are
promising more big announcements this week: "There's some massive win heading our (and your) way. We we we so excited! In the meantime we continue to root & leak & rm."
Hackers have been steadily ramping up their rhetoric and actions from pranks to serious threats. It is already Monday 27 February in the UK, and while America watches the Oscars,
WikiLeaks have begun publishing the Global Intelligence Files and
over 5 million confidential e-mails of the Texas-based security company,
Stratfor. It looks like Stratfor's site has been hacked at the same time as well, since they currently have a
14 February 2012 page up advertising: "Jihadist Opportunities in Syria."
Tweets in the past few hours
give the tone: "
We aren't born under the law. Laws don't apply upon us.. we are legions."
And: "Yikes RT : A wild wiki leak appears: | Bringing emails right in your face! "
And: " to publish security think tank | "
And: "Greece Ministry of "Justice" Website has been Hacked and Defaced by Always Expect Us."
And: "Something dark is churning in my heart. I like it. "
And: ": Academia de Cine / ... YOU´ BEEN HACKED!! We do not forgive."
And: "Federal Trade Commission Server Breached By Anonymous ( Protest)"
And: " University of Washington hacked by xdev "
As the actions escalate and the evolution takes hold, you have to wonder where this will all go. I sure miss the 80s, when we looked at tech with
wide-eyed wonder and boundless optimism. The mood of the 1990s, the decade when popular access to the Internet was born, was awash in paranoia. This was the
Dawn of the Paper Shredder, when the
X-Files ruled the television. With its smoke and mirrors, virtual
Potemkin Villages, invisible hierarchies, unknown authorities and special-access-class of users, I'm not sure the Internet was ever free, or ever lent itself to freedom. The Internet is very good at setting up online institutions that
look like they are dealing with freedom when they are in fact dealing with its opposite.
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