Re: <nettime> Re- Casa logic

[Prem Chandavarkar <prem {AT} cnt-semac.com>]

> But whatever the nature of the well-deserved prize the question is into
> whose bank account or which mantelpiece will the prize sit? 

Examining this question, I am reminded of a statement by David Korten 
that I read years ago where he stated that "the best way to kill a 
people's movement is to give it lots of money".

Ultimately it all comes down to the inner ethical choices that all of us 
have to make - are we driven by issues such as awards, fame, or sources 
of funding; or are we driven by the respect that we can earn from the 
communities within which we are embedded.  An orientation towards the 
former leads us toward seeking the approval of non-local constituencies, 
even though the apparent rationale of our work may be to serve local 
interests.

In this global networked mediatised world we are continually served with 
the temptations of the non-local.  For many of us who have not yet 
confronted the local, it is quite difficult to resist this temptation 
for it gives us the opportunity to avoid the more difficult problems 
contained within what lies beneath our nose.

But for those who have begun with a confrontation with the local, when 
fame comes our way it is difficult to resist the seductive thought that 
fame will now lift this local struggle to a new height.  We fail to 
realise that in accepting fame we have now been labeled by something 
that is outside ourselves.  So we do not address the question, where 
does our identity spring from?  Will it spring from this new label that 
has been applied to us?  Or will it continue to spring from the dense 
network of ethical local connections that had supported it so far?

Prem Chandavarkar


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