image from google
After reading Barlow’s perfect utopian world in, ‘A declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace,’ I couldn’t help but laugh as his 1996 view of cyberspace’s offerings appeared somewhat naive.
Oh, to live in a perfect world!
With the explosion of cyber bullying incidents in the media, sadly there is fear. There is fear for youths coming home from school only to find that their social networking site has become bombarded with words of hate. There is fear for parents who are apprehensive of their child’s safety on the internet with the influx of paedophilia incidents. There is fear that an individual’s past mistakes will resurface and ultimately affect their future. And lastly, there is fear for the bully’s behind these incidents that worry about getting caught.
Barlow’s declaration assumes a perfect world on the internet, correcting the wrong doings of the government in the real world. He speaks of the power of free speech and almost trusts the morality of individuals on the internet as he states; ‘Our identities have no bodies, so, unlike you, we cannot obtain order by physical coercion. We believe that from ethics, enlightened self-interest, and the commonwealth, our governance will emerge.’
Drawing upon a previous blog entry concerning the ambushed funeral of a ‘World of Warcraft’ gamer, I would like to ask where this emergence of ethics currently resides?
Barlow might be declaring independence, but I’m going to declare fear in cyberspace.
Great to see a new perspective on the Barlow reading. I also agree that Barlow assumes that cyberspace is going to be a perfect world. Although, he acknowledges there may be problems, he imagines that it will be patrolled and governed by the people. Which, in reality does not occur.
ReplyDeleteAside from that issue, i do feel that Barlow raised some important issues that still hold value to this day.
You might have an interesting point here. The concerns for cyber bullying and other events you described all have something in common. They're instigated by regular people, or more specifically people who aren't working for the government or corporations to further their own agendas. It's just the bad elements of humanity surfacing.
ReplyDeleteI question as to whether Barlow didn't see this eventuating because of the importance he placed on government being responsible for the evils within society or he was a tragic optimist, hoping that with unlimited freedom on the internet people would inevitably become ethically obliged to act in the best interests of everyone.