Are Social Software and Indirect Action BAD for Progressive Politics?

[scottxyz]

Are Social Software and Indirect Action bad for Progressive Politics?

Two thought-provoking, kinda contrarian essays that ask the question: Does the satisfaction of participating in internet bulletin boards and blogs or marching in the streets drain our energy from more-important DIRECT acction?

http://www.corante.com/many/archives/2004/01/26/is_social_software_bad_for_the_dean_campaign.php
Is Social Software Bad for the Dean Campaign?
by Clay Shirkey

When I was 19, I remember seeing a bunch of guys in a parking lot in New Jersey absolutely rocking out to Twisted Sister at top volume, “Oh we’re not gonna take it, No, we ain’t gonna take it, Oh we’re not gonna take it anymo-o-o-o-ore” and I remember thinking the song was using up the energy that would otherwise go into rebellion.

Just rocking out to Twisted Sister so hard, and feeling so good about it, made those guys feel like they’d already stood up to The Man, making it less likely that they would actually do so in the real world, when the time came. And I’m wondering if the Dean campaign has been singing a version of that song, or, rather, I’m wondering if the bottom-up tools they’ve been using have been helping their supporters sing that song to each other.


http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Mar04/Jones0314.htm
"Let’s Put on a Show!"
Spectacle Versus Reality in the US Peace Movement
by Pattrice Jones

The big demonstrations that have become so popular are not only ineffective; they actually make matters worse. By channeling the time, energy, money, and creativity of so many activists into an exercise in futility, these demonstrations and their preparations deflect activist attention from the urgent task of fashioning actual (rather than symbolic) challenges to the corporate world order and the military power that sustains it. Moreover, these demonstrations leave people — activists and regular citizens alike — more rather than less comfortable with the existing order. Watching or reading news reports about the event, citizens feel good about living in “a free country.” Mollified by making the news, participants go home feeling like they have done their part. Indeed, judging from the comments they make to reporters, personal comfort appears to be the primary reason many people attend these events. “I know we can’t stop the war,” goes the usual litany, “but I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t show my disagreement.” Thus, the performance of dissent becomes an end in itself rather than the means to an end.

[ConsAreLiars]

1. It is the usual lame-ass bull that "anything" is worse than "everything"

Or the purist variant that "your thing" must be wrong because only "my way" is the one true path. An attempt to split off the impure from the pure. Cointelpro tactics.