[Air-l] war, fear, movements, and the net

[david silver]

a quick point regarding the appropriateness of a discussion of global
peace movements and/using the internet on a list like air-l:

> In short, political discussions belong on political lists, not here.

using similar logic, should we say that a post about feminist and
feminist-bashing web sites pertains only to a women's studies list?  or a
discussion about social networks belongs only on a sociology list?  or a
question about postcolonial readings of cyberdiscourses should be
relegated to a postcolonialism list?  considering the times in which we
live, i can't imagine a topic *more* appropriate to air-l than one about
the internet and global movements (be it for imperialism or
anti-imperialism, for war or peace).

i've enjoyed and learned a lot from the posts so far and hope they
continue to grow in many directions.  in my original post, i mentioned the
ways in which members of the global peace movement are using the net,
among other things, to protest the threat of war.  but i also mentioned,
and remain very interested in, the inverse: how the threat of war is
influencing the way we use the net.  here in the US (and i'm curious to
hear about how things are going down outside the states), popular media
has given very little coverage to protest movements, until feb 15th.
polls that suggest support for the war get a ton of coverage while those
that show a growing reluctance get little if any coverage.  at the same
time, there seems to be a culture of fear, not unlike a new breed of
mccarthyism, that has silenced many would-be opponents of this policy or
that threat.

there's many repercussions to this of course, but i'm particular
interested in how a relatively conservative press and culture of fear has
resulted in new net tactics.  for example: i have dozens of friends and
colleagues who have opened new hotmail or yahoo accounts in fear of having
their company, university, and/or service provider monitor their email; i
know a number of folks who seem to do nothing but comb the web for
alternative news, graphics, and animations and distribute them to everyone
they know (and don't know); i've spoken to countless folks in the states
who say that the only reason they knew, before feb 15th, that there was a
protest movement growing in the US was from learning about it online, on
listservs, on web sites, on blogs (like Aldon Hynes noted); and, like
Robert Tynes mentioned in a post, there's been a number of massive email
campaigns to try to sway opinions.  i'd be interested to hear any comments
on this, and believe it is completely relevant to this list.

david