Posted 15:53 by Mark Federman permanent link
What the Fuck, Indeed

You don't have to hang around the McLuhan Program for too terribly long before being subjected to my rant on how time is running backwards. In effect, we are losing a decade every four or so years, and I suspect it began, albeit slowly, when the Berlin wall fell, and the United States of America began to experience hyper-acceleration, heading into reversal. I started to notice that the first of Bush-the-Younger's administrations was feeling very much like the 1970s, but running backward, as if the tape of the Vietnam era was playing in reverse. And now, we are in the 1960s, staring hard at the social values of the late 1950s, McCarthyism and all. But all of this is probably familiar in one form or another to those who have participated in the discourse around here. (BTW, if these trends continue, as Disco Stu says, Whoa! or was that, Ayyyyyyy!)

An interesting side effect (that, as McLuhan reminds us, is the real effect) is the neo-puritanism that is arising, particularly when it comes to the mass-media. The apoplexy that seized the US concerning Janice Jackson's physique (to the bemusement of the rest of the world) has led to calls by senators for even more stringent restrictions on what can and cannot be said, and shown, on the airwaves, and in public. Won't somebody think of the children.

Well, as it turns out, "right-thinking" people are. I noticed this item about a week ago in the Toronto Star about a young athlete from Toronto's famous all-girls school, Havergal College whose enthusiastic encouragement to a team-mate to, and I quote, "now run your fucking ass off!" resulted in the relay squad being disqualified from the match. And this morning, on CBC Toronto's morning radio show, Metro Morning, a panel comprised of host Andy Barrie, the Globe's Jan Wong, and CBC Newsworld's newest and presumably hippest commentator, George Stroumboulopoulos, discussed Barrie's use of the the word, "fuck" during a conversation on cocaine addiction last week. Think of the children? Wong reported that while she recoiled at the affable host's momentary fucking lack of affability (or is that lack of fucking affability, or perhaps lack of affable fuckab... never mind) her children went on eating their cereal, not even noticing a word that is so fucking common in the workplace, the home, school, in movies, on television, that it's fucking suprising that people are making a big fucking deal about anyone using the word, fuck.

I'm reminded of a famous Lenny Bruce routine in which he used the word, fuck, so fucking much, that he fucking took away its fucking power to fucking shock anyone. "When you curse someone, you shouldn't say, 'Fuck You!' but 'Unfuck you!'" Think about it.

There is a more important ground operating here, one that transcends the "won't somebody think of the children" issue of so-called proper language. Lenny Bruce said it himself, actually, "Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say fuck the government." If you control speech, you control thought. If you control what is acceptable to say, to print, to show, you control the ability of people to form opinion, especially dissenting opinion. Among several surveys conducted in the Unites States over the past couple of years, between 30% and 49% of those surveyed thought that their Constitution granted too much freedom of speech. High school students are regularly seeing draconian restrictions on rights of free speech - not necessarily the right to say, fuck, but the right to be critical of the current President. Won't somebody think of the children? In fact, there are many somebodies in positions of power who are very much thinking of the children, and the type of compliant adults they will grow up to become, to cement what the United States of America appears to be evolving to.

A decade regressed every four years. And we're now in the 1950s, with all its attempted repression of speech and sexuality, and its intolerance and bigotry and blind nationalist jingoism.

Repeat after me: What the fuck.
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Posted 22:19 by Mark Federman permanent link
Building the Internet from the Ground Up: The Indonesian Experience

ASIAN INSTITUTE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
in association with Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia
present
Dr. Onno Purbo

Building the Internet from the Ground Up: The Indonesian Experience

Wednesday, June 1, 2005
12:00 – 2:00 p.m.
Munk Centre for International Studies
North House – Room 208N
1 Devonshire Place

A light lunch will be available

Please register by e-mail to ai.events@utoronto.ca or call (416) 946-8996

“Dr. Onno Purbo is a self-confessed tech rebel. He was educated in Canada but returned to Jakarta to set up a technology movement whose innovative technologies prey on the margins of legality. His open-source philosophy is designed to equip Indonesian kids to participate in the knowledge economy.” –Ken Wiwa, Globe and Mail

Dr. Onno Purbo received his Master’s from McMaster University and his Ph.D in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo. He is a former IDRC Fellow and the author of numerous articles and books about the Internet in Indonesia.
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Posted 09:42 by Mark Federman permanent link
Political Theatre

High drama this week in Ottawa. Belinda bolts for better berth. Harper horrified as House holds. Robbing Peter to pay Paul. (Okay, lots of people used that one.)

A couple of days ago, when the news of Belinda Stronach's defection hit, the U of T public affairs (no pun intended) office called me and asked if I had a comment from the anti-environment. My chat with Karen ended up in a humorous riff, comparing the drama in Bytown (the original name of Canada's capital city, Ottawa) with classic Greek or Shakespearean theatre. After our conversation, I quickly dashed off the riff to capture it for future reference, and sent it to Karen.

Well, the folks in the office there howled, and Karen shopped it around. The Star said they wanted to run it, but it was too late for the next morning's paper. They would run it the following day, they said.

The truth is, newspapers, in their obsolescence, simply cannot capture timing, and humour is all about timing. Thursday's paper came and went, and by that time, the focus had shifted. So, for the record, here's what my commentary looked like, within an hour after the Belinda news struck:

Belinda Stronach Crosses the Floor: Musings from the anti-environment

The current session of parliament plays out a classic dramatic tragedy – an ancient Greek archetype of destiny fulfilled (or not), or a Shakespearean tale of lust for power, blood on both hands and floor, and none left alive by the final curtain.

Former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien is a direct disciple of Pierre Trudeau, who usurped Paul Martin Sr.'s aspirations to become leader of the Liberal Party, and hence Prime Minister, in nearly four decades ago. History repeated with the classic battle between Chrétien and Martin Jr. – the current Prime Minister – as the latter's aspirations were put on hold for three parliamentary terms. Martin the younger conspires against his leader and perennial foe, and forces him from power, politically assassinating all of the former leader's supporters and allies.

But the evil that existed between Martin and Chrétien is first foretold by soothsayer (and Auditor-General) Sheila Fraser, and later called forth from the darkness below by the wizard Gomery, from whose cauldron emerges the most foul of brews. The ghost of Liberal's past returns to haunt Martin, even while wide awake in Question Period. "You there! Boy! What day is this?" "Sorry, sir. It's not Christmas yet!" What the dickens?!

Meanwhile, Martin's currently-in-exile rival Stephen Harper, in cahoots with the leader of a rebel tribe, Gilles Duceppe, plot Martin's downfall – Brutus and Cassius to Martin's Caesar. Or perhaps a greater tragedy applies – one whose very mention in theatres is considered taboo, lest misfortune befalls the House.

"Macbeth" Harper meets three pollster witches in a heath, who tell him, "All hail Harper! Hail to thee, Thane of Stornaway! All hail Harper! Hail to thee, Thane of Sussex! All hail Harper! Thou shalt be king hereafter!"

Sussex? King? Not a bad idea, muses Harper, now filled with lust… for power, for pow-er. (He's from Alberta – "Texas North" – after all!)

Did Harper misinterpret the three weird sisters? Did he think that "king" referred to the way he would intend to govern as Prime Minister? Or, were the weird fortune tellers merely referring to former Prime Minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King (who regularly consulted the spirits – including that of his dead dog). Regardless, witches' portents always end up going tragically wrong in Shakespearean tragedies.

Harper Macbeth:
Is this a dagger which I see before me, / The handle toward my hand? / Come, let me clutch thee. / I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. / Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible / To feeling as to sight? or art thou but / A dagger of the mind, a false creation, / Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? / I see thee yet, in form as palpable / As this which now I draw. / Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going; / And such an instrument I was to use. / Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses, / Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still, / And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, / Which was not so before. There's no such thing: / It is the bloody business which informs / Thus to mine eyes.

And now, Lady Belinda Stronach Macbeth, crosses the floor. Does she see principled debate in decline? Does she question the values and agenda of her leader? What does she see?

Lady Belinda Stronach Macbeth:
Yet here's a spot. / Out, damned spot! out, I say!--One: two: why, / then, 'tis time to do't. Hell is murky!--Fie, my / lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we / fear who knows it, when none can call our power to / account?--Yet who would have thought the old man / to have had so much blood in him. / The thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now? / What, will these hands ne'er be clean?--No more o' / that, my lord, no more o' that: you mar all with this starting.

And at the end of the scene, the Doctor says:
Foul whisperings are abroad: unnatural deeds / Do breed unnatural troubles: infected minds / To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets: / More needs she the divine than the physician. / God, God forgive us all!

Indeed. God forgive us, everyone.

And what of Peter MacKay, once putative beau of the fair Stronach? Far from tragic, MacKay becomes Bottom of A Midsummer Night's Dream, with ass's head, attempting in vain to woo Titania, until she is reunited with Oberon, King of the Fairies. Enough said!

The importance of media studies in such a context is that it provides us the mechanisms with which we can construct an anti-environment to better understand the dynamics of otherwise complex situations. It is not understanding the mass-media's treatment of a situation that is necessarily interesting or important, but rather our ability to perceive the underlying dynamics of the situation itself that is crucial to an informed public – and electorate.

Posted 09:23 by Mark Federman permanent link
The Medium is the Message - Visual

Talk about an unfortunate logo, unless they're completely anal about their Institution!
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Posted 19:10 by Mark Federman permanent link
Rejections

I was catching up on my reading, and was paging through the comments on Slashdot concerning the U.S. Rejecting the Canadian Rejection of DMCA. An "Anonymous Coward" submitted the following rejection letter for our collective consideration. I nearly busted a gut laughing!

Dear Professor Millington,

Thank you for your letter of March 16. After careful consideration, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me an assistant professor position in your department.

This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually large number of rejection letters. With such a varied and promising field of candidates it is impossible for me to accept all refusals.

Despite Whitson's outstanding qualifications and previous experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet my needs at this time. Therefore, I will assume the position of assistant professor in your department this August. I look forward to seeing you then.

Best of luck in rejecting future applicants.

Posted 12:11 by Mark Federman permanent link
The McLuhan Lectures - May 4 - Evolution with Paul Thompson

This Wednesday sees the beginning of our fabulous summer series, The McLuhan Lectures 2005 on the theme of Evolution, and the Medium is the Message, with Paul Thompson.

Paul Thompson is a professor of biology and zoology and director of the Institute for History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at U of T. He has been a vice-president of the university and principal and dean of Scarborough College. He is the author of The Moral Question and The Structure of Biological Theories as well as over forty single authored journal articles on evolutionary theory, theory structure in biology, and biomedical ethics.

Responses will be given by Frederic Bouchard and Anant Bhan.

Frédéric Bouchard is a FQRSC postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for History and Philosophy of Science and Technology. Starting June 2005, he will be professor of philosophy at the Université de Montréal. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Duke University.

Anant Bhan is a physician and the Fogarty International Fellow at the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics.

While people will be admitted without reservation on a first-com, first-served basis up to the room capacity, why don't you guarantee yourself a seat by emailing the Program, or calling 416-978-7026.
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Posted 08:05 by Mark Federman permanent link
Corporate Architecture With Glass Walls

Even high security outfits now have, if not glass, then transparent walls. Indeed, emergent transparency - as opposed to privacy and secrecy - is among the major reversals effected by instantaneous, ubiquitous communications. Take the Los Alamos National Laboratory, for example, once the top secret facility responsible for the Manhattan Project. Now, the controversy surrounding its internal management practices is out in plain sight via the weblog of one of its computer scientists under the monicker of LANL: The Real Story. And once on the 'net, the story conveyed to those who are not necessarily directly wired via the traditional media outlets like the Toronto Star, and New York Times. It not only makes for a fascinating glimpse inside a secretive organization, it also creates a living laboratory for the student of management science, corporate politics or corporate sociology.

The effect of weblogs to amplify voice is neither good nor bad, it simply is. This means that, like the early adoption of the phonetic alphabet in ancient Greece, and the introduction of movable type print in the 15th century in Europe, the effects of weblogs and their kin on society will at first be dismissed, then perceived as disruptive, and finally become intimately woven throughout the fabric of society. A hundred years from now, the emergent effects of pervasive proximity and its ensuing transparency will be taken simply as "the way things are, and always have been." Our obsession with privacy, secrecy and security will be seen as a quaint artefact of an odd, but relatively primitive, time.
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