[Air-l] Re: terrowar and the internet

[Michel J. Menou]

Folks
It seems to me that the demos last Saturday around the world, to the
extent there is a connection among the organizing groups, was
greatly, if not uniquely, facilitated by the Internet, and is
therefore a historic event.
Re the study mentioned by Gina, subject to further examination, I feel
a distinction need to be made between organizing groups and individual
participants marching in any street.
What Internet has allowed, I presume, is a sense of worldwide
mobilization among the organizers and the more involved folks in the
various places. And I presume managing to impress the traditional
media.
One should also look at the motivational effect of the interaction
across the net.
We should be careful in any social implication to separate individual
access and collective effects. One guy who knows of a demo through the
net can drag in 100 people who will all rigthly said they came because
that chap told them about the demo.
On another fornt, if the Internet would not allow a huge number of
people to know about the demos, would the "major channels" all over
the world, cover the event.
How much do we hear about demos in Argentina, or many other places,
these days?
Of course, I don't have, nor anyone has, yet "scientific" evidence of
the Internet role in this event. I hope some will work on it.
Before the terrorizers do get the net down for "antiUS activities".
Michel

PS: terrorwar, what a terrible pleonasm