Comments on: Ramblings about Society in the 21st century http://www.munchkin-wg.de/index.php/2009/11/19/ramblings-about-society-in-the-21st-century/ Domi, Geoff, Blitz and repeating... Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:07:58 +0200 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Geoff http://www.munchkin-wg.de/index.php/2009/11/19/ramblings-about-society-in-the-21st-century/comment-page-1/#comment-479 Geoff Sat, 28 Nov 2009 14:10:00 +0000 http://www.munchkin-wg.de/?p=191#comment-479 As promising as your theory might sound, I do find some flaws in it. Apart from the merely technical fact that you can erase negative comments from your wall on the social networks, one of the problems lies in the establishment of let's call it pressure groups. Being mean to people who aren't your friends may even be rewarded by your friends because they share the same opinion on some topics as you do, while the others do not. A evangelical guy would surely be praised by his buddies for being aggressive to some liberals who advocate birht control/same sex marriage/you name it. On another point of view, you would always be controlled by your friends and critizised when having a different oppinion. I am not saying that it will inevitably lead to some kind of Blockwart-mentality, but each one has the understanding, he controls everyone around him. The biggest mistake I see in your theory is, who defines what is "good". Of course there are some aspects, we (hopefully) all can agree on, but on critical issues, there may be several different views with their own (good) arguments. By letting the public and the majority control all my utterances and oppinions(in a completely public and connected world) the minority will always be regarded as wrong. According to Rosa Luxemburg: „Freiheit ist immer Freiheit der anders Denkenden, sich zu äußern“ (sorry, won't translate it). I hope it doesn't sound too culture-pessimistic. :) As promising as your theory might sound, I do find some flaws in it.
Apart from the merely technical fact that you can erase negative comments from your wall on the social networks, one of the problems lies in the establishment of let’s call it pressure groups. Being mean to people who aren’t your friends may even be rewarded by your friends because they share the same opinion on some topics as you do, while the others do not.
A evangelical guy would surely be praised by his buddies for being aggressive to some liberals who advocate birht control/same sex marriage/you name it. On another point of view, you would always be controlled by your friends and critizised when having a different oppinion. I am not saying that it will inevitably lead to some kind of Blockwart-mentality, but each one has the understanding, he controls everyone around him.

The biggest mistake I see in your theory is, who defines what is “good”. Of course there are some aspects, we (hopefully) all can agree on, but on critical issues, there may be several different views with their own (good) arguments.
By letting the public and the majority control all my utterances and oppinions(in a completely public and connected world) the minority will always be regarded as wrong.
According to Rosa Luxemburg:
„Freiheit ist immer Freiheit der anders Denkenden, sich zu äußern“
(sorry, won’t translate it).

I hope it doesn’t sound too culture-pessimistic. :)

]]>