[PEN-L:9681] Re: Bill McKibben

["frances bolton" <fbolton@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Lou writes:
>As far as my "preindustrial Marxist fantasia" is concerned, I
>haven't heard this kind of idiotic garbage
>
Hey, it's your idiotic garbage that I was responding to.

>To the contrary, it is "dangerous nonsense" for indigenous peoples to avoid
>using computers in this manner. Anybody who has been following the
>Zapatista struggle for the past few years understands how crucial the
>Internet has been. Not only has it served to educate people all around the
>world about what these Mayan peoples are fighting for, it has also provided
>an emergency response mechanism when the Mexican government has attempted
>to repress the movement. Immediately after the massacre in Chiapas last
>month that took the lives of 44 people, the Internet became a beehive of
>activity as word circulated. Demonstrations, picket-lines and other forms
>of protest forced the Mexican government to open up an investigation and
>public awareness will surely make it more difficult to repress the movement
>in the future.
>
Well, of course it's not the Zapatistas themselves who are designing those
web pages and writing those articles. They don't speak (or write) Spanish,
they don't have electricity, much less computers or modems or telephone
lines. If they did, they'd be in great shape and there'd be no reason for
the uprisings, right? It's people supporting indigenous people who are using
the computers in this case. Sure, they might benefit from things that are
posted on the Internet, but to say that they are using it is wrong.
Computers exist within a very specific politico-economic framework, and to
decontextualize them, as you seem to do, is both dangerous and naive.

Frances