theorycast.42 :: When Smartmobs Go Wrong...

While having brunch at Washington Market in downtown Buffalo, Shady, Ken Fujiuchi and Kevin Lim chat about the ease of online anarchy mirroring into the offline world. I offered the pretext of Samuel Huntington's "Clash of the Civilizations" as a way to understand why some cultures seem to challenged by practices of online democracy, which might include examples like Anonymous (group) and Japan's 4chan. While we'd like to hope a Darwinian approach would naturally have societies "sort themselves out", some civilizations are concerned that they might not survive that phase and have taken steps to manage it, such as through legitimate forms of Internet regulation (e.g. China).

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• publicsphere
• civilizations
• 4chan
• anonymous
• china
• japan
• america
• democracy
• regulation
• internet

[intracoast]

Democratic countries have many problems. Countries living under dictatorship sometimes do well...for short periods of time.But the notion stated here, that Chinese people don't care about political freedom, rings hollow...especially from an educated person living in a western democracy, talking politics.Again, the speaker asks can civilization survive that phase(which I read as a democratic change for China),shows the speaker's fear of change for his home country and the kaos that could ensue.

[intracoast]

...The speakers comment citing a poll that says 85% if Chinese people don't mind having the government censor the internet is interesting. What type of accuracy can a poll like this have in a country where censorship thrives. Maybe there is another poll that counters this one...but it has been censored. Maybe, just maybe, people who don't like censorship might not say so in such a poll fearing the government will somehow track them down.

[intracoast]

Interesting video. I am guessing the main speaker is from China. It is odd to hear young, educated people try to explain how not everyone "wants" Democracy. While true, certainly no one wants to live under a ineffective government of any type, but people have a chance to peacefully change a democratic government. That's why so many people desire this style of government...including those in China. In his comments I also hear his fear of kaos that his country knows too well.