“If all information is seen as part of a war, out go any dreams of a global information space where ideas flow freely, bolstering deliberative democracy. Instead, the best future one can hope for is an ‘information peace’, in which each side respects the other’s ‘information sovereignty’: a favoured concept of both Beijing and Moscow, and essentially a cover for enforcing censorship.”
― Peter Pomerantsev, This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality, 2019
It's worse than that. One area Peter Pomerantsev falls short is not bringing in Marshall McLuhan, Neil Postman, Joseph Campbell, Howard Bloom, and James Joyce into his work (Marshall McLuhan and Joseph Campbell were both professional teachers at university and both converge on teaching about James Joyce). Media ecology. Especially electric media ecology, the way people switch channels on television, the way people on Internet social media write one sentence at a time on Lemmy, Reddit, Twitter and don't read an entire book by a single author - but hundreds of different authors in a Lemmy and Reddit comment section all contributing one sentence.
With Wikipedia, each word or sentence can be a different author, refined. But with Lemmy and Reddit, it is ships passing in the night, people repeating the same low-effort thoughtless reaction-comments. Reddit and Lemmy and Bluesky are the opposite of Wikipedia, because they scroll off after 24 hours. On Lemmy / Mastodon / Twitter / Bluesky - recency is the focus. On Wikipedia, refinement and improvement "fleshing out" is the ideal focus. And I would go beyond Wikipedia - to a series of "Super Wikipedia" systems that do not concern themselves with relevance to the general public. Normal Wikipedia removes content it deems not of interest to the general public. I think what we really need is a fully index everything public library. Where every idea / concept / understanding gets cross-referenced and used a citation.
Don't get me wrong, Peter Pomerantsev is a great educator / teacher / writer on these subjects. I admire Peter's excellent ability to describe the horrors he has come to recognize and describe. My brain-damage problem is that I view these conflicts not only in terms of government and politics, China / Russia - as in this quote from Peter Pomerantsev... but as Tower of Babel, all human communications and comprehension. The perspective of Carl Sagan in his poem Pale Blue Dot, and his 1995 book "Science as a Candle In the Dark".
I also find Peter Pomerantsev draws the lines to not emphasize religion history as having the same conflicts of Beijing vs. Moscow. My brain damage is that spiritual metaphors (Joseph Campbell perspective) on morality (attraction to good, avoidance of bad) and joy and goodness itself, aren't in USA government language. "Pursuit of happiness", what about the joy of understanding and sharing. Please let me revisit the quote:
“If all information is seen as part of a war, out go any dreams of a global information space where ideas flow freely, bolstering deliberative democracy. Instead, the best future one can hope for is an ‘information peace’, in which each side respects the other’s ‘information sovereignty’: a favoured concept of both Beijing and Moscow, and essentially a cover for enforcing censorship.”
― Peter Pomerantsev, This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality, 2019
Repeating again again: each side respects the other’s ‘information sovereignty’:
That's exactly what Islam, Christianity, Jewish try to do with the Torah, Quran, Bible.
That's the metaphor of the "Tower of Babel". And I think with 8 billion people on Earth, James Joyce was pointing out in 1920's that we can't keep ignoring the elephant in the room. The "Tower of Babel" crisis.
I think we have failed to educate the behavior of people who don't understand each other. Every person over age 12 should be focusing on the symptoms and understanding of information conflicts.
"each side respects the other’s ‘information sovereignty’: a favoured concept of both Beijing and Moscow, and essentially a cover for enforcing censorship.”
― Peter Pomerantsev, This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality, 2019
That goes on with marriages, that goes on with children to parents / age gaps in communications. That's what goes on with Fox News viewers vs. magazine readers. These are the subjects of Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman's education. And Joseph Campbell in comparing all the religions of the world.
Malala from Swat Valley Pakistan, Carl Sagan, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr want us self-aware of the egoism / egomania / self-centered symptoms of failing to understand the behavior that comes out of these gaps in comprehension.
We are taking understanding, comprehension, experience beyond the words, for granted. We are smashing into each other, attacking each other, insulting each other, mocking each other... those are the symphony of what is being described:
“If all information is seen as part of a war, out go any dreams of a global information space where ideas flow freely, bolstering deliberative democracy. Instead, the best future one can hope for is an ‘information peace’, in which each side respects the other’s ‘information sovereignty’: a favoured concept of both Beijing and Moscow, and essentially a cover for enforcing censorship.”
― Peter Pomerantsev, This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality, 2019
There are now over 8 billion people all with their own information sovereignty. This is not a new 2019 experience, that's the very meaning of the "Tower of Babel" metaphor itself.
