Udhay Shankar N wrote:
Biella Coleman (one of our list.lurkers) is uniquely qualified to write
about the anthropology of the hacking underground. In her current paper,
she asks an interesting question: why are hackers/crackers so much more
political than people in other lines of work?
Thoughts?
It's interesting to talk about the ways in which technology changes the
scope and methods of activism, but I'd need some cold, hard evidence
before I agreed that techies are more likely to enter the political fray
than lawyers, doctors, professors, teachers, journalists, social
workers, psychologists, and librarians.
Most politicians and judges are lawyers by trade. Lawyers are often at
the forefront of civil disobedience and social change. It makes no sense
to me to claim that hackers are more politically active than lawyers.
Other professions also have a long history of political activism.
Hactivists have been around for a long time now. In number, they are a
tiny fraction of the techies serving the whims of moneyed interests.
It's my own perception that techies tend to be less politically active
than most other types of professionals. It's frustrating to me
personally that so very many techies are content to stay within their
privileged bubbles rather than turning their attention to the social and
economic ills that they are helping to perpetrate.
For me, the dark horses in terms of activism have been the librarians.
Who knew that the mild-mannered keepers of books would morph into major
champions of privacy and intellectual freedom as well as political,
social, and economic justice?
--hmm
