Gita Hashemi on Fri, 4 Feb 2011 13:24:08 +0100 (CET)


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Re: <nettime> Egyptian Revolution: 2nd decolonialisation for all


david,

i totally agree: silence is revelatory.  but it could reveal 
different things, depending on whose silence we choose to listen to.

speaking for myself, i found a long time ago that the 
techno-political musings on nettime, smart as they are, usually state 
only the obvious dressed up as novel, or the novel dressed up as 
relevant, or the relevant dressed up as radical, or the radical 
dressed up as resistant.  in any case, the distance between the list 
musings and the ground is as far as that between celebrated academic 
theory and anything we might call real activism that would risk 
anything for anything relevant to "struggle".

further, i was graciously informed that notions of "struggle" and 
"solidarity" offend the delicate noses of nettime mods:

At 3:34 AM +0200 7/28/09, nettime mod squad wrote:
>And, FYI, as for as 'electronic solidarity' stuff, I ***hate*** it --
>have from day one. If I let my feelings get in the way, none of those
>messages would ever go through; but since that's not a viable option,
>I approve them. With gritted teeth and holding my nose, but I approve
>them.
>
>Cheers,
>T

this finally drove the point home for me:  the essence and main 
function of the list is to provide yet another safe platform for 
techno-political pundits to re-publish the stuff they've already been 
paid-for and/or published elsewhere, and for techno-poets to play out 
self-aggrandizing dramas of dropping out and coming back every other 
year.

so, just to clarify, my silence on nettime on subjects such as the 
present thread's actually means that i am conserving my energy for 
what really matters and/or am really busy doing what i think should 
be done, which, from my distant location in north america, usually 
means facilitating or participating in some form of solidarity action 
and networking with those who're revolting.  i've long given up the 
hope that this list or others like it might actually be useful even 
for real discussions let alone for organizing and actioning, which 
are, in revolutionary times, of the highest order.

be well.

gita

At 12:11 PM -0500 2/3/11, David Golumbia wrote:

>i have been wanting to remark for a while on a silence is not
>just deafening, but revelatory. it makes these lists seem like "places to
>talk about politics so long as and only in so far as you think politics are
>being radically transformed by one electronic technology or another." in
>such a context, the fact of resistance is more important than its success,
>so that we can talk about failed uprisings as revolutions.

<snipped>


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