The silent revolution

On October 22nd, 2008 Henriette Weber wrote:

this evening I talked to a friend about what she named " silent knowledge" - and I started to dig after my silent revolution posts on henrietteweber.com. I think the thoughts still holds so I decided to republish them here - unedited. they are 3 years old but they still hold a lot of water - enjoy.

"The silent revolution as I see it, is what blogging sprang from. is why web 2.0 is happening, and why free agents start up everywhere, making a living of their interests. I have not done any research except for looking at the tendencies in society. so here goes

back in..uhhmm 1999 - I started reading the book called “no logo” by Naomi Klein. And as a real closet hippie, I was outraged and upset by the multinational companies abusing societies and making living standards, well not liveable - for a lot of people all across the world.
why ? for money and efficiency and to have more money to use on mainstream marketing to sell more ( and get consumers to consume more of their products). I think the book touched my anti-autoritive behaviour and I became real angry !…
what I found that “no logo” was missing was an action plan .. I finished the book at a holiday in Corfu, Greece - and I was all hyped up on ” all power to the people” , ” think global act local” - but I didn’t know how to make my meaning heard - or how to change anything!

then I read “culture jam” by Kalle Lasn of adbusters and “fast food nation” - the last one actually made me puke… I couldn’t believe that people would go to such extremes for money - and I could believe that the world around us is closing their eyes on it.

I don’t believe that people didn’t care. but for the first 4 years when I was a vegetarian - I was met with the question ” why ?” and ” well it doesn’t matter in the big picture” - but being a vegetarian mattered to me… it was my little provocation against society…

a lot of people in the start of the 2000’s thought that way. our influence wasn’t big enough as a sole person. then something happened.

I think it was a mixture between companies pressing products down our throats and making one way marketing to have us -well consume more.
Nobody actually listened to what we were saying. We weren’t mainstream media , so who cared ?

well other consumers cared. the revolt in seattle for the WTO meeting in .. whenever… the boycots of Esso - all happening because of communities and the insight that if people stand together as a group - we can actually make things happen.

Multinational companies may not, but the NGO’s and the activists found a way to colide and make their case heard ( maybe it turned into violent demonstrations- but that actually attracted mainstream media more) - it got an edge… people were arrested for causes they believed in - extremist, but I would call them excellent rolefigures of some point, because it showed that some noble people outthere still had the courage to fight for what they believed in.

so because of these events society started to move psychologically - adding dangers from “outside” ( global warming, deceases, unjust wars) where people found out that somewhere, there’s an elite that runs different countries -this elite is influenced by lobbyists, these lobbyist are working in the best interest of the companies or organisations they represent. so where’s the actual “public” in this ? - they aren’t there.

we are nowhere in the decisiveness of governments - if they are persuaded strongly enough to follow through - they will.

so to counteract these behaviours and this, well powerless attitude - that you get when no one cares or listens. we started looking inwards.

western society became more demanding towards the producers of goods, wanting quality instead of quantity - and the conciousness about saving the planet, and making an influence in our own way , as single tiny persons in a big world -started to happen.

stress as a factor and a society decease made us take on meditation and a more spiritual approach to life. We have the means to choose our residence and make our home as comfortable as possible. We want the time to act as a family - and we want to be able to spend unstressful time with our kids.

mainstream media followed up on this and starting to make housing and design programs. then they made nanny watch - all in search of happyness for the actual family.

books was made to “clean up our mess” - and prioritize what things we wanted around us in our homes, and what wasn’t useful or pretty. simple living became a hit, and so did feng shui

so prioritize came into the picture… we need to get rid of the crap - and find the actual meaningful things that we want in our timelimited life.

and we needed a source to get all our thoughts down -and share these with other people. hence blogging. new networks has sprung from blogging, people meet, and people connect.

People are, in their essence, meaningful to other people.

So… people are starting to find meaning in themselves - and work around their family and their homes more than they are occupied with global issues. I believe that this is the cause of the powerlessness that “normal” working people are feeling around governments.
fx the way the danish government handled the muhammad conflict was a puzzle to most danes. Also because it is the “normal” people that are being generalised ( as, also, some danes tends to do with foreigners).
this leaves a HUGE space for people to express themself. to not being generalised. to look inwards, to identify themself.
and I believe that this is what the internet and the new dimensions of it, is going to help with.
people cheer for each other on 43things.com
people see where other people are located on plazes.com
pinko marketing thrives at it’s best
all the “social software” is evolving around sharing and personal gain and communities because we are not used to have tools that let us share different thoughts.
and I am making funny little gimmicks on wiki’s such as canicrash and desti:nation, which - well in it’s essence, is fulfilling a huge part of my rather big creative side.
people are leaving companies to start own businesses where they are specialised and the creme de la creme

the web suddently ” acts and listens” instead of “observes”"