Today's class!

What a better way to strike fear into the masses by not showing up for class as the instructor. With no knowledge of  the where abouts of Jodi Dean, the class wonders if at any moment she will burst through the door to check in on us, or if this is some crazy experiment she's trying on the class. What better way to emphasize Andrejavic's chapter 6, as a class we fear over the slim possibilities of something happening, yet there is enough fear to get us to do exactly what you want. Using fear to steer the masses... (Brian's way of comparing this course to the chapters- not exact words) ...

Today's Class Dialogue:

      
·         Fear being used as a marketing strategy to steer masses into a capitalist agenda and self surveillance.

·         Gov’t tricks us into giving up our privacy; ease the minds to get information.

·         Not recognizing the real source of terrorism

·         Gnutella vs Napster  ( Gov’t highlights only certain news {providing half ass information on terrorism only to help ease the mind of the public, such as the urgency of finding Osama Bin Laden as if his capture will put an end to Al  Qaeda  

·         We do not use the technology we have to are fullest potential instead of information gathering that may help the political state of the country

·         Technology is being used by politicians to get an edge on voters

·         People would no longer be engaged in the political process due to the availability of politicians being able to have a message directed towards each individual instead of the mass so now the mass has collective knowledge of the politicians’ intentions/ campaign…

Blogging and trying to hold a class dialogue was not happening for me, but taking notes and transfering topics of discussion in the class room seemed to be more realistic. I feel class discussion could've ran more smoothly if we weren't required to blog while talking, since some members of class were blogging only and some were actually talking which made it much more difficult than normal.

 I find it intriguing to be discussing government surveillance and big brother in a classroom setting when this is a topic of discussion in my neighborhood amongst store owners, drug dealers, preachers, and so on, yet no one really seems to take it seriously because it’s made out to be a theory when in all actuality this is happening.  I feel like this could be a topic of discussion, why the public only sees government surveillance as a thing of the future and not the present? 

Sorry for the repost i forgot to add who was in class today...i dont know everyones name in our class but what I can say is if anyone posted about class today was in class because they recieved the information on what was needed from us.