1/05/2009

The internet is YOU!

Below is an extract of a fairly long article posted in TOC by a KJ. It is very good reading for those interested in seeking alternative views other than from The Old Media. ....The Internet is not the perfect mass medium, and it need not be. Being an excellent one is enough for its purpose. Its inconsistency, unpredictability, and dilettantism are precisely its strengths. Its excellence and political potency cease only when individuals no longer blog, participate in forum discussions, forward that incriminating email, access a plethora of info-news websites – professional and amateur, local and foreign – and continually comment, debate, and quarrel, post pictures and put up videos and form communities. Its potential for political change is anywhere and everywhere. But political activism is neutered at its heart when individuals forget that change comes not just from the arena of parliament and street protests, but also from the sitting and thinking individual. The personal is the political, and the political is in the quotidian and in the everyday. Action originates from one’s thought, conscience, and consciousness. An impassioned thought is in itself activism. Taken together, they constitute the truer citizen, one that perpetually questions received wisdom, rips up underlying assumptions, and resists and unmasks the artifice, injustice, and sophistry emanating from those enthroned in the white chambers of power. Taken together, you rebuff the vacuous regurgitation of propaganda by those indoctrinated ones, and you expose their shallow, hollow, and spurious patriotism.... Since the Straits Times has abdicated its role as the paramount purveyor and conduit of critical, independent thought, then the Internet should attempt that role. As long as you have something original to say, the keyboard is yours....

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

IQ 0

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

you can make it 0, 100 or 200. it all depends on what you post.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

I wonder what drugs this fellow was taking when he wrote that tripe, and whether or not he was masturbating to internet porn.

Anonymous said...

Whether it is 0, 100, or 200 is all a matter of perception, which shoes you are wearing and who is your paymaster.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

in cyberspace there is no paymaster. just enjoy posting.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes you feel that some people are really murdering the English Language. Sir Ernest Gowers would be turning in his grave if he read that.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

there are many levels of language comprehension. what is important is to be able to get the message across, to convey an idea clearly, be understood without much difficulties.

style and prose will leave it to those who are well gifted or able and willing to master the language at its peak level. it is a great skill to be able to exploit the language to its fullest, a joy to read.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

The 'meaning' of your message is always constructed in the mind of the recipient. Therefore you have very little control on the intended meaning of what you communicate — because the recipient will always interpret it through his pre-suppositions, filters, mental conditioning etc.

The way this phenomenon is stated in the field of NLP is:

The meaning of your communication is in the response you receive.