With Friends Like These ...
Tom Hodgkinson,
Jan 17, 2008
If I could quantify friendship, I'd be counting friends. Instead, I prefer to count on friends. It's that intangible that makes sites like Facebook - and sites like Match.com - so pervasive. And it raises questions about the political motivations of those behind Facebook. As Hodgkinson writes, "Facebook is one manifestation of this ideology. Like PayPal before it, it is a social experiment, an expression of a particular kind of neoconservative libertarianism." In essence, what has been created is a "heavily-funded programme to create an arid global virtual republic, where your own self and your relationships with your friends are converted into commodites on sale to giant global brands." Well, yeah. I think we all know that (if not, we should). The question is, even though Facebook pays the band, can it call the tune? I think that even if Facebook is a political entity, it is going after the wrong target. The left has never (except in the mids of its leaders) been about mass movements. It has always been about personal empowerment. Via Emma Duke-Williams.
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