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Under the Influence

  
 
Blake Head
03:07 / 05.01.07
Sorry, this isn’t very fully fleshed out, and hence probably not worthy of the Switchboard. Something Haus said about there likely only being around one hundred of us posting made me think: we really aren’t that influential. And even if there were 5000 of us, we still wouldn’t be influential, even in the rare to improbable instance that we would all choose to exert our influence in the same direction. And when I thought about Barbelith as a place which is individually so influential, it was strange to think about it as being so powerless in real terms. I guess what I’m thinking about with influence is political influence, and I’m thinking in terms of employing the internet as a way of forming interest groups that could lobby governments on national and international issues. Not comics. Though that said, there’s no reason why we couldn’t collectively decide to stick it to the big two with regard to their scheduling, except that I don’t think they’d notice.

Everyone playing politics is pretty much aware now of the power the internet has as a tool for spreading gossip, disseminating information, sharing knowledge, increasing the level of debate, and Barbelith (hopefully) participates in that. But in terms of being listened to, I don’t think of us as “influential”, and I can’t think of any other group or community that’s likely to even be acknowledged. Things like ORG obviously exist as special interest groups, and I hope they’re listened to, and there are various forms of online activism tied to specific causes, but I don’t know about any more general groups being considered as part of the demographic. No-one consults TMO before releasing government policy, but with enough numbers, and opinions marshalled together (easier said than done), there’s no reason that I can think of that they couldn’t be considered as another community “voting bloc” that needed to have its concerns addressed.

So… I wanted, as someone uneducated in such things, to ask: do these hypothetical politically influential collectives exist? And if they don’t – should that be the case? Would we simply need larger online groups? Do you think the situation is going to change in the future, or is this all a bit half-baked?
 
 
Blake Head
10:35 / 06.01.07
Ok - looks like we'll file this one in the ideas-at-five-in-the-morning-that-you-should-really-keep-to-yourself category.
 
 
Ex
10:52 / 06.01.07
Not at all - I'm just still thinking about it.

One thing I notice is that often when there's a situation involving consultation or lobbying (or even the letters page of a paper), the suggestion that there has been an 'internet group' organising or encouraging responses is held up as invalidating the results. As though one's opinion is valid... right up until it prompts you to connect to other people with similar opinions, and use the 'net to keep tabs on goings-on. Then you're some kind of cabal that is unrepresentative and can be dismissed.

I thought that was a bit of a tangent, so I was going to think harder and come ack later.
 
 
illmatic
12:11 / 06.01.07
I see no reason why Barbelith couldn't have some slight influence if you asked people to carry out a specific action towards a specific cause. A bit off-topic, but look at the support Seth was able to raise for the Melt Banana gig. I've no idea of the numbers but let's say 20 people contributed - I see no reaon why you couldn't marshall 20 people to write letters to a specific organisation if you felt strongly enough about it.

Having said that, I don't know how effective campaings like this are - the one time i can remember it taking place on Barbelith was against the deportation of Elizabeth, a Ugandan asylum seeker, and it was run very much against a deadline. This wasn't successful, unfortunately but perhaps lobbying at an early time might've helped.

Presumably the powers-that-be may be used to receving email led and web led lobbying campiagns. I'm not sure how much notice is taken of these things - I actually suspect it's very much dependent on the specific context. I'd also add that I suspect if one is involved in the politcal process especially if lobbying against powerful vested interests, it's a slow and frustrating, quite boring, process. One has to be consistent and committed over a long period of time. And that isn't the engagement that most people most people come here for.

Bit offtopic, but I previously had the idea of starting a thread to ask everyone to write to their local MP on an issue they cared about and posting the results/responses. Might be an idea.
 
  
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