[P2P-F] Fwd: <nettime> free speech and financialisation

Sun Nov 27 17:07:44 CET 2011

http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/232Hans Ulrich ObristIn Conversation
with Julian Assange, Part IJA: "Censorship is not only a helpful economic
signal; it is always
an opportunity, because it reveals a fear of reform. And if an
organization is expressing a fear of reform, it is also expressing the
fact that it can be reformed.""In places where speech is free, and
wherecensorship
does not exist or is not obvious, the society is so sewn
up — so depoliticized, so fiscalized in its basic power relationships
— that it doesn’t matter what you say. And it doesn’t matter what
information is published. It’s not going to change who owns what
or who controls what. "Forwarded conversation
Subject: <nettime> free speech and financialisation
------------------------

From: *nettime's avid reader* <nettime at kein.org>
Date: Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 12:21 PM
To: nettime-l at kein.org

http://www.e-flux.com/journal/**view/232<http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/232>

<....>

JA: Censorship is not only a helpful economic signal; it is always
an opportunity, because it reveals a fear of reform. And if an
organization is expressing a fear of reform, it is also expressing the
fact that it can be reformed. So, when you see the Chinese government
engaging in all sorts of economic work to suppress information passing
in and out of China on the internet, the Chinese government is also
expressing a belief that it can be reformed by information flows,
which is hopeful but easily understandable because China is still a
political society. It is not yet a fiscalized society in the way that
the United States is for example. The basic power relationships of
the United States and other Western countries are described by formal
fiscal relationships, for example one organization has a contract
with another organization, or it has a bank account, or is engaged in
a hedge. Those relationships cannot be changed by moderate political
shifts. The shift needs to be large enough to turn contracts into
paper, or change money flows.

HUO: And that’s why you mentioned when we last spoke that you’re
optimistic about China?

JA: Correct, and optimistic about any organization, or any country,
that engages in censorship. We see now that the US State Department is
trying to censor us. We can also look at it in the following way. The
birds and the bees, and other things that can’t actually change human
power relationships, are free. They’re left unmolested by human beings
because they don’t matter. In places where speech is free, and where
censorship does not exist or is not obvious, the society is so sewn
up — so depoliticized, so fiscalized in its basic power relationships
— that it doesn’t matter what you say. And it doesn’t matter what
information is published. It’s not going to change who owns what
or who controls what. And the power structure of a society is by
definition its control structure. So in the United States, because of
the extraordinary fiscalization of relationships in that country, it
matters little who wins office. You’re not going to suddenly empty a
powerful individual’s bank account. Their money will stay there. Their
stockholdings are going to stay there, bar a revolution strong enough
to void contracts.

<....>

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From: *John Young* <jya at pipeline.com>
Date: Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 6:02 PM
To: nettime-l at kein.org

"Free speech" has come to mean to protect your wallet for
that enterpise has been "financialized" by media, academia
and NGOs -- and whistleblowers, not to overlook
documentary makers and once honorable alt media.

Assange is a courageous and creative person, don't smirk
at the journo-formulaic cheap shot, but from the beginning
he has put fund-raising first on the WL agenda, exaggerated
WL uniqueness, overstated (with coy understatement)
its influence, and misrepresents WL's inept security.
My early critique of those fatal flaws is still valid.

Although Julian now has a PR team of ghostwriters, bloggers
and quasi-intellects (authorized spokespeople WL brays)
providing material to advance the crypto-free-speech
brand he set out to establish with the carny-corny-copyist
Wiki + Leaks.

The e-flux pieces are epitomes of that lucre-driven genre
of unctuous fancy branding. The cliche of artist interlocutors
stroking one another with sappy artworks and puff-ball questions
for masterful ghost-scripted pontificating by Julian is pure NYC
world capitals of capitalism stagecrafting of how commerce
undergirds the high-branded, prize-winning! culture for
consumption by blockbuster addicts.

Zizekism fits the bill.

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From: ** <navva at earthlink.net>
Date: Sat, Nov 26, 2011 at 9:05 PM
To: nettime-l at kein.org

As one of those cliched artist interlocutors you do not bother to name, i
would like to observe, john, that your own linguistically painful post
seems to exist merely to make you feel better about something or other.

Are you more upset by Julian Assange, by

 documentary makers and once honorable alt media,
>

or perhaps zizek,

or or or

 stagecrafting
>

or yours,
martha rosler <...>
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