In terms of organized action for constructive social change, or helping to make the world a better place, or however you might phrase it, do we do more to help or hinder that process when we use Facebook? I hear Gil Scott-Heron in my head saying “the Revolution will not be ‘liked’ on Facebook.” And I keep thinking of how activists in the 1960s or 1930s were more organized than those now, despite all of our gadgets.
This might not be an entirely useless question to ask, given how Facebook seems to play into the hands of governments spying on their populaces.
There’s no substitute for in-person engagement. It’s powerful, and that’s why abusive governments have cracked down on it throughout history, and currently. That’s why the “right of the people peaceably to assemble” is an important part of the First Amendment. Tea Party and Occupy folk can agree on that much.
Why are we not doing more to exercise our freedom of assembly to take a stand against the corporate takeover of our government ?
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