Muscle

I am looking forward to watching Countdown with Keith Olbermann tonight followed by the Rachel Maddow Show. It will be the first time I've watched anything on MSNBC since my boycott of the station as they suspended Keith Olbermann last week.

Thanks to the social network on the internet, it became possible for ordinary people like me to make some small statement through an action, and successfully aggregate that small statement with all the similar ones to demand something of those working the large machinery of our culture without having to drop everything else.

The benefit of this medium was rooted in its support of viral forms of news (or rumor). Over the physical space of the country or world, and the oppression of news telling in the official news outlets, only connections that can eliminate the three dimensions of space will be able to connect us adequately to each other, and respect our individuality at the same time.

A real possibility of action via social media through the relative ease and accessibility of tools used to publish and process information makes it possible to live an ordinary life and participate in conversations of our time when they resonate with us without having to devote the core of our life to activism.

The petition is one way to aggregate voices to become loud enough to be heard, but I imagine there are a whole range of other tools usable on the social network which could aggregate our will to become a compelling force when our invidual will aligns with others'. Certainly fund-raising is one, but the funds would tend to work through an already functioning body with a complex agenda. In such a case, the work may get done, but might not be done with the simple precision of dealing with a single issue at a critical time.

Boycotts are a good use of social networks. In its ability to communicate in quick succession, a coordinated, short boycott to make a point could create a shock which would be felt by business, without needing to be disruptive in fact. Consciously changing consuming habits in unison with others could express a will that will not be measured otherwise in market studies.

Coordinated action is another use to which social networks could be put; being in a particular place at a particular time for a particular purpose.

Postings and their following chain of comments can help to develop a level of sophistication about issues, when we choose to discuss issues, while allowing us to keep in practice with the mechanism and in contact with each other in the interim. Life need not always be a drama.

The happening with Keith Olbermann drew our attention to the need to defend the world we value, but it also opens up a new discussion about how we can use the tools of a technology that killed the personal world we knew, to a new personal world that could, perhaps,  empower us to lead more satisfying lives.