Geert Lovink, Seven Resolutions for 2009

http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/geert/2009/01/27/seven-resolutions- 
for-2009/

(Empyre list moderators asked me to join their January debate:  
Resolution for Digital Future 2009. Here my contribution. /geert)
Geert Lovink
Seven Resolutions for 2009

1. Radical makeover of Indymedia into an irresistible network of  
networks, aimed to link local initiatives, worldwide, that aim to  
bring down corporate capitalism. In order to do this Indymedia needs  
to go beyond the (alternative) news paradigm. This is the time to do  
it. If not now, when? The debate should be about the possible  
adaptation, or perhaps transcendence (think negative dialectics) of  
the social networking approach. Is it enough if we all start to  
twitter? Perhaps not. A lot of the online conversations at the moment  
circle around these topics. There is a real momentum building up  
here, and that’s exciting.

2. Renaissance of theory, radical texts that appeal to young people  
and help them to dream again, aimed to develop critical concepts,   
cool memes and audio-visual whispers that can feed the collective  
imagination with new, powerful ideas that are capable to move people  
into action. Theory, in this context, means speculative philosophies,  
not academic writing or hermetic bible texts, aimed to exclude  
outsiders and those with the wrong belief system. Overcoming  
political correctness in the way that beats populism would be the way  
to go.

3. Dismantling the academic exclusion machine. With this I mean the  
hilarious peer review dramas that we see around us everywhere, aimed  
to reproduce the old boys networks, excluding different voices,  
discourses and networked research practices. We need to have the  
civil courage to say no to these suppressive and utterly wrong  
bureaucratic procedures that, in the end, result in the elimination  
of quality, creativity and criticism (and, ironically, of innovation,  
too). In the same way we need to unleash a social movement of those  
who dare to say no to all these silly copyright contracts that we’re  
forced to sign. We should stop signing away our ‘intellectual  
property’ and begin to radicalize and help democratize and popularize  
the creative commons and floss movements.

4. Overcoming media genres and expertise prisons in order to  
productively connect our knowledge and experience. With this I do not  
mean diplomatic gestures to open up token channels for  
interdisciplinary dialogue. Any formal attempt to bring together  
people from different backgrounds is bound to fail. What might be a  
solution is to go for hybrid-pervert situations in order to  
investigate the absurd edges of the knowledge universe. Again, any  
model that somehow wants to move towards a synthesis (or convergence)  
is doomed to be irrelevant and will only be instrumentalized in  
institutional restructurings in which the creative-subversive  
elements are the ones that will be excluded.

5. Squatting the overlooked ruins of the 2009 crisis. There is an  
enormous economic infrastructure that is being abandoned at the  
moment, ripe to be socialized. The problem, however, is that we do  
not really ‘see’ it, in the same way as in the 1970s and 80s many did  
not see the subversive potential of squatting warehouses, factories  
and old housing stock. Luckily this is merely a matter of start  
wearing the right pair of glasses. Put them on and you discover an  
abundance of abandoned resources, ready to be re-used.

6. Global crackdown of the corporate consultancy class. We have to  
get a better understanding of the dubious role that the Ernst & Young/ 
PricewaterhouseCooper etc. consultants are playing, from downsizing  
firms, coaching NGOs and global civil society professionals,  
privatizing public infrastructure, to running entire education  
sectors. Not only are they experts in cooking the books (see the  
dotcom crash). Their role as (invisible) advisers, speech writers and  
PR managers needs some serious investigative journalism a la Naomi  
Klein.

7. Opening channels for collective imagination. It’s not enough to  
say that another world is possible (we know that). Radical reform  
plans are available–and are being implemented as we speak–by the  
bankrupt neo-liberal elites, in a desperate attempt to somehow make  
it to 2010 or 2011, when the recession will be over and old policies  
can be continued again. It’s not enough to be satisfied with the  
promise of a green GM car, made in the USA. We can think, and build,  
so much more. For this to happen, the corporate elites need to be  
dispossessed of their power. Calling for ‘change’ comes with  
consequences: dethronement. Sorry, you fu*ked up badly. It’s time to  
step down and move on. Exit.

(written at the start of the Year of the Ox)

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