A shorter version of my essay, “Being Political Now” from the August issue of the Griffith Review, The Next Big Thing, has been published this morning at Online Opinion.
Update: The essay itself can now be downloaded from the contents page.
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“Phenomena such as Moveon.org, Getup.org.au, IndyMedia and blogs are increasingly mobilising political involvement.”
Mark, I would like you to expand on this point. How are they mobilising political involvement? Getup.org.au seems largely to have failed as a political initiative and IndyMedia largely attracts political activists anyway.
Sure commenting on things can be a political, but given that people say any old rubbish on blogs, will the political future belong to a geeky boy who hides behind a fake name and who hates everybody because he hates himself?
Thats an interesting argument.
Although it would suggest that battleground for political debate has changed from the street to the Internet, the problem remains the same: how to get visibility to the cause. The exhibits in the Brisbane museum are absorbing precisely because of the atmosphere they place in when the Joh government was banning protests. This attempt to cut off the avenues of free speech is clearly seen in the burning anger of the protesters faces. You cannot see faces in cyberspace so we have no guage of how much anger there is out there about current political debate.
The question is now why the “professionalised” political process is so alienating? Is it because it has become specialised to a point where laypeople can no longer understand the process or is it simply that everyday life is deemed complicated enough and therefore we don’t have the time and energy to engage on these more speculative levels?
Even so, the research you quote would indicate that there is plenty of people with time and energy to engage but the forum for engagement has changed. The key will be translating this energy back into the non-cyber world to effect action. Therein lies the problem that I think Darlene alludes to.
Cheers,
Derek
It’s a given that people say any old rubbish in pubs, clubs, footy stands and church halls too, Darlene. What distinguishes the voices who get listened to regularly is whether what they say is worth one’s time.
Not everybody scurrying around the series of Intarweb tubes is a pseudonymous misanthrope, either. Or a boy, come to that. And to call a political lobbying group a failure after only a few months seems, perhaps, premature?
Folks – thanks for the comments – I still have one more class to teach today so I won’t be able to join in discussion much until tomorrow at the earliest. I’ll be happy to elaborate on the internet aspect when I do – obviously the degree to which I can make that point is limited by the op/ed format. Actually, that argument is one that’s not fully developed in the essay itself but is something that I’d like to write about in a separate piece. In terms of negotiating identity politics, and indeed defining attitudes about issues such as drug use and environmental campaigns (to use two examples students of mine brought up today in class), a surprising amount of the sort of political action I’m talking about is taking place on myspace.
Anyway, more later!
Oh, sorry, I meant to add, the full essay is now online via the link I posted to the Griffith Review above.
I’m also planning to write something responding to Creed’s lead piece – I responded verbally to his presentation of it at the launch of the issue at the Byron Bay Writers Festival on Saturday.
Could blogs actually be a distraction from action, a self-satisfied world wherein it is easier to post a comment than to write a letter to a politician?
ALso, let us not forget that there are still massive global inequities in access to internet, and internet speeds. Not to mention an increasing level of private ownership and control over the world wide web.
WHATS YOUR POINT MARK?
What is your point fella?
Essays tend to me more interesting if you have a point.
Mark:
No worries. Shall download and read tomorrow. Then shall return amused/infuriated/perplexed/delighted/whatever …. if my ration of electrons holds out.
Luddite:
No, probably not a distraction for most but a more effective means of being heard than either letters to MPs or letters-to-the-editor or talkback radio comment, given the cocooning of our parliamentarians by overenthusiastic minders and staff and given the gatekeeping at newspapers and on talkback radio (though I myself have been lucky enough to get through most times – others aren’t so lucky and become discouraged …..and alienated).
You are absolutely spot-on about inequities in access to the internet.
Cultivate doubt, Mark. Question your assumptions.
Great title for what is currently happening in Queensland politics today. ‘The next big thing’ explains how political blogs can question the suitability of the new Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, Mark McArdle, to hold any office in Queensland. He certainly seems to have some explaining to do to the Queensland public.
Check out the relationship between Mark McArdle and seniors who were duped by the law firm he was a parter in, Boyce Garrick. One of his fellow partners was dealt with for his part in a seniors investment debacle but Mark McArdle went on to a successful political career. In one prospectus Mark McArdle was listed as ‘responsible’ for ‘compliance’ by Boyce Garrick.
Find a newspaper that has even bothered to get close to investigating just what is the background of the newly announced Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party in Queensland and compare this to what can be found by a quick whip around internet sites. You will find that the newspapers are miles behind even what has publicly been revealed in Queensland Parliament’s hansard.
That someone with his background can be Shadow for seniors, then Shadow Attorney General, and Shadow Minister for Justice is amazing. For Mark McArdle to become Deputy Leader of anything anywhere is a plain contempt by the Liberals for the Queensland population. ‘The next big thing’ to happen could possibly be his resignation.
Steve:
This is entirely consistent with the way the Queensland Liberals have carried on since Nicklin was Premier.
They’ve just dumped Quinn, the bloke who was so successful in stopping the Liberal Party in the Queensland Parliament becoming an irrelevant non-parliamentary political club for the ratbags, the doddery, the loony and those caught in a mid-20th Century time-warp.
The Next Big Thing for them won’t be anyone’s resignation: it will be complete annihilation at the upcoming State election. It will be interesting to see if the vacuum left by Liberals is filled by the Nationals or by a well-funded, tightly organized religious clique.
One thing people could look at is the level of debate about politics and in particular non-partisan concerns about the global and the local on myspace (for instance environmental issues, but also rights issues – though sometimes not framed as such) – you might be surprised.
As to the action/discussion question – what is the point of being a citizen if you can’t discuss political issues in a public space? Again, tracing the influence of such discussions is an empirical question, but I don’t know that dismissing it a priori is a particularly positive or helpful attitude.
Graham and Steve, I’ll have a thread up about Quinn in a tic.
Mark:
You are spot-on about the professionalization of politics and increasing alienastion.
Thanks, Graham – I think it’s the key thing that explains so much else. What we need is ways to break it open, and also to counter the perception that it can’t be.