{"id":13919,"date":"2025-02-16T11:11:12","date_gmt":"2025-02-16T16:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/?p=13919"},"modified":"2025-02-16T19:19:00","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T00:19:00","slug":"we-are-all-dispensable-for-a-revolution-of-the-means-of-information","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2025\/02\/16\/we-are-all-dispensable-for-a-revolution-of-the-means-of-information\/","title":{"rendered":"We are all dispensable: For a revolution of the means of information"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There\u2019s a clear lesson for us in the mass firings<\/a> of federal employees, carried out as part of an administrative coup led by the world\u2019s wealthiest tech oligarch, in the country that had up till recently been seen as the paragon of stability and prosperity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That lesson is that we are all dispensable now<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the new order that\u2019s being instituted, no one is secure anymore. Just as climate change has been making us all vulnerable in ways that had previously been limited to the victims of colonialism and extractive capitalism, the new tech order makes us all vulnerable to the dispossession of any security we thought we had — of our jobs, our homes, our communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new order is an alliance between the world’s techno-industrial oligarchs and the authoritarian neo-imperialists<\/a> who now lead the three most militarily powerful countries in the world (Trump, Xi, and Putin). It’s being ushered in, most obviously, by the Trump\u2013Musk axis, with other tech lords playing along, since they have plenty to gain from it and too much to lose if they do not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The alliance is hardly unified at the global level, and will likely be characterized by rivalry, if not military confrontation. But its goals are unified. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are, first, to continue the scramble for valuable techno-industrial resources — including remaining fossil fuel reserves, newly critical “green tech” minerals (lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper, rare-earth minerals<\/a>, et al.), control over the rapidly warming Arctic, and the new digital frontiers of artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, and whatever will come next. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, second, to control the masses of humanity using those very technologies, through information warfare, opaque media algorithms, and the same artificial intelligence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The upshot is that techno-fascism is being instituted on a daily basis. (Other terms, like kleptofascism<\/a>, also apply.) The critical question for the rest of us is how to resist it while developing a viable, global alternative to it. Resistance at this point is a daily chore<\/a>, and some may wish to ignore things as much as possible (though it’s ultimately not an option). The alternative is around, and has been for decades, but isn’t making it out into the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To change that requires a revolution — not of the means of production<\/em> (which is pretty impossible these days), or of reproduction<\/em> (of life<\/a> in its every dimension<\/a>), but of the means of information<\/em>. Information constitutes the leading edge of wealth production, so much so that in an increasingly oligarchic global economy, control over the flow of information means massive wealth which, in turn, means massive political power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To take control over the means of information means to radically restructure how information is produced, secured, managed, and distributed so that information becomes answerable<\/em> to people’s real needs, not to the accumulation of profit. It means reviving the public library model — knowledge as a human and public right — for the digital era. Librarians, media reformers, open-source advocates, and independent and community media producers all contribute to the possibility of a more democratic digital public sphere, and the ethical and normative features of such a public sphere have been plentifully discussed (e.g., see Franks 2021<\/a>, Fuchs 2023<\/a>, Giannelos 2023<\/a>, Mazzucato and Valletti<\/a>, the work being done by SFU’s Digital Democracies Institute<\/a>, Yale’s Information Society Project<\/a>, Cardiff’s Data Justice Lab<\/a>, the Open Future Foundation<\/a>, as well as various media monitoring projects like McGill’s Media Ecosystem Observatory<\/a>). This work is central to the repossession of the world by the majority of people, whose interests are currently not represented by the powers that shape things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Articulating<\/a> the vision<\/a> of a better society and working toward reining in the catastrophic failure<\/a> of “the information society” have to be done in tandem. It will be hard work<\/a>. But as more and more of us recognize our dispensability to the new order — and our utter precarity<\/a> in the face of climate change and its human exacerbators<\/a> — there will be more and more of us to do it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good thing about what’s happening now is that we are getting some clarity in our understanding of where things are headed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a clear lesson for us in the mass firings of federal employees, carried out as part of an administrative coup led by the world\u2019s wealthiest tech oligarch, in the country that had up till recently been seen as the paragon of stability and prosperity. That lesson is that we are all dispensable now. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[660440,689701],"tags":[711210,711211,711214,4478,711217,216,711216,711213,711215,711212,454932],"class_list":["post-13919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-manifestos-and-auguries","category-media_ecology","tag-information-revolution","tag-information-society","tag-kleptofascism","tag-media-ecology","tag-musk","tag-revolution","tag-tech-oligarchs","tag-techno-fascism","tag-techno-oligarchy","tag-technofascism","tag-trump"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-3Cv","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2875,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2011\/03\/06\/metaphorics-of-revolution-rebellion\/","url_meta":{"origin":13919,"position":0},"title":"Metaphorics of “revolution” & “rebellion”","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"March 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"When we hear about a Twitter and Facebook \"revolution\" in \"X Square\" or in a city in Libya, do we get keyed up? When we later hear about \"rebels\" and \"civil war\" somewhere in Africa (in that same Libya), do we tune out? This week's On the Media -- one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Media ecology"","block_context":{"text":"Media ecology","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/media_ecology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8032,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2015\/02\/16\/the-ecology-of-syriankurdish-freedom\/","url_meta":{"origin":13919,"position":1},"title":"The ecology of Syrian\/Kurdish freedom","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"February 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Eco-theorists may recognize the title of this post as a variation on the title of Murray Bookchin's audacious and\u00a0deeply\u00a0influential (for many, including myself) 1982 book The Ecology of Freedom: The Emergence and Dissolution of Hierarchy (pdf here). What's little known to anyone following recent news about the war in Syria\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/politics_postpolitics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/_38eVyMfag0\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1071,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/05\/15\/story-of-scary-stuff\/","url_meta":{"origin":13919,"position":2},"title":"Story of scary Stuff","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"May 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=kvU_vhopKKc&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1 Environmental pied piper Annie Leonard's 20-minute teaching video The Story of Stuff got five minutes of frantic Fox News treatment a few days ago -- which means it's making an impact out there in the wilds of America. New York Times Education writer Leslie Kaufman, writing about it on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eco-culture"","block_context":{"text":"Eco-culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecoculture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/kvU_vhopKKc\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2649,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2011\/02\/15\/spreading-revolution\/","url_meta":{"origin":13919,"position":3},"title":"Spreading revolution","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"February 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The New York Times has a couple of nice pieces on the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions: an interactive account of the key events and a more detailed piece outlining the role of the different protest groups, bloggers and Facebook-ites, nonviolent resistance tactics, and the Obama administration. A few quick thoughts:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Media ecology"","block_context":{"text":"Media ecology","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/media_ecology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1062,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/04\/24\/with-jesus-on-our-side\/","url_meta":{"origin":13919,"position":4},"title":"with Jesus on our side…","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"April 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Greenpeace International's Earth Day video looks like a recruitment ad for an army of media-guerrilla climate warriors. From the techno-martial drumming, rapid-fire camera movement, shots of the troops in action, eco-doomsday imagery (including an image of the sun rising over the Earth looking like a mushroom cloud), and Christ the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eco-culture"","block_context":{"text":"Eco-culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecoculture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/zVu9eawb1QY\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9894,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2018\/10\/28\/time-for-eco-revolution-a-manifesto\/","url_meta":{"origin":13919,"position":5},"title":"Time for eco-revolution (a manifesto)","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"October 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Inspired by the daily litany of depressing news (and by reading Latour's Down to Earth), I've succumbed to the temptation of writing a manifesto. Manifestos are cheap, I know, but we have to start somewhere. (And so many questions arise as you write one: about the proper balance between critique\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropocene"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropocene","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/anthropo_scene\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2018\/10\/weed-pavement-275x183.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13919"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13941,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13919\/revisions\/13941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}