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Blog PostsA good reason not to join IOPS.
By Karthik Ramanathan at Jun 02, 2012 |
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I just had to write down some thoughts on the recent emails and largepopups on the main ZNet page advising people to join IOPS.
Firstly, I just have to admit to the reader that as a foreigner and Asian male who has lived in the United States for many years and often involved with social activism, I have been both motivated but also suspicious of attempts at organizing on the left. Motivated, because there are many people and organizations out there doing self-less work and organizing and protesting, but still staying high-spirited and bringing their enthusiasm to the community to build a better world. Suspicious because needless to say there are people who do the opposite even when they say they intend to 'change the world' for the better. No, I'm not talking about Obama and the democrats. I'm talking about people often associated with anti-war, feminist or economic rights of people. There is tremendous tendency within the left to control, prevent debate and generally behave in ways that are pretty hippocritical and sectarian. That background said, I would like to come to the topic of IOPS that I would like to comment about.
Firstly, IOPS could well turn out to be a great project and I wish everyone who wants to be involved with it the very best. But its hard to understand how good things can start with a terrible precedent.
Why badger people with so many emails advising them on the benefits of IOPS? I agree that attention can be provided to it, but whats going on here is nothing but an advertising campaign. Very valuable writers like Noam Chomsky have written their views on IOPS and they are encouraging ones, perhaps rightly. But why is it being advertised with the entire beginning part of the ZNet page being devoted to this? Why cannot it be just another news item? That way people will have the opportunity to make a fair judgement and not be bombarded with folks telling them about the wonders of this project??
I think the left has to practice what it preaches first.
By Albert, Michael at Jun 03, 2012 23:08 PM
Sorry you feel that way about the overlay.
To our thinking having the overlay on the top of ZNet for a few days is not badgering, advertising, or a terrible precedent. It is instead simultaneously showing how important we feel this is, and providing substantive argument bearing on the matter - hoping, in that way, to overcome habits, presuppositions, and cynicism which cause people, largely understandable but in this case hopefully wrongly, not to even look at IOPS, but to just conclude, without looking, that it is not worthy of their joining.
For a typical user, the overlay might add three seconds to the time you have to expend to get to our top page. That outlay, to try to create an organization that can help act on the content that you will find on that page, and throughout the rest of the site, seems a good trade off to us.
So far, you are the first person to offer a reason for not joining in public - I thank you for that. But, I have to be honest with you - to my ears, it is a very strange reason. Especially since you say IOPS could well turn out to be a great project - if you think that, then I have to wonder, why wouldn't joining make sense?
Finally, does the overlay and other "pushy" efforts to get people aware work - well yes, it does. Every time there is a jump in numbers, as more people are moved to take a look. I may as well warn you, this is not going to stop, as there will be more communications whenever there is no information to add to the entreaty...
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Re:
By Ramanathan, Karthik at Jun 06, 2012 20:49 PM
Michael,
Thanks for the note and the explanation for the outlay. But I still feel campaigns such as this should be coupled with similar efforts such as the occupy page, which is given a distinct position on your website, but not imposed the way IOPS is. Same with the emailing. The fact that you may have gotten a lot of people into joining the site also we can agree does not tell anything about where the project is going.
Regarding my own position, I think you are misreading that I said it can "turn out to be a great project". If you read closely, you will see I was reflecting on what Chomsky was saying apparently in response to your request to him. I think it can also "turn out to be a project" that detracts from other interesting opportunities that we have in the communities that we live in. Furthermore, I'm personally very careful where I invest my time in. My experience is its a difficult proposition even to develop a sense of solidarity even when people with similar activist interests meet face-to-face in communities. Doing so online, would be a much bigger challenge. Trying to do so for me now, would simply be a detraction from the other work that I can readily do where I live. So, I have serious questions about Chomsky's statement that "Individual initiatives are fine, but mutual support, and articulation of common goals, can considerably enhance their impact". The assumption is that IOPS can really get to a point where "mutual support and articulation of common goals" are the order of business so to say. If it goes anywhere else, then it will "considerably reduce the impact" that individuals have. Furthermore, I think even without such an organization, I would value individual efforts at a much higher level than this statement suggests.
If others like you chose to do so, I certainly wish you the best. In the process, as in any effort, I just hope that you will not feed on peoples hopes and insecurities and vulnerabilities.
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