May you live in interesting times, eh?
Okay, so cyber-utopians might have been a bit misty-eyed. For the rest of us, saying “I told you so” and trying to disentangle ourselves from the grid is no answer. Nor should we put our heads in the sand, which is tantamount to saying “let the grid have its way with me.”
One way to lift your head from the sand is to become more responsible with information.
As Evgeny Morozov demonstrates in “The Net Delusion,” his brilliant and courageous book, the Internet’s contradictions and confusions are just becoming visible through the fading mist of Internet euphoria. Morozov is interested in the Internet’s political ramifications. “What if the liberating potential of the Internet also contains the seeds of depoliticization and thus dedemocratization?” he asks. The Net delusion of his title is just that. Contrary to the “cyberutopians,” as he calls them, who consider the Internet a powerful tool of political emancipation, Morozov convincingly argues that, in freedom’s name, the Internet more often than not constricts or even abolishes freedom.
Book Review - The Net Delusion - By Evgeny Morozov - NYTimes.com
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