Phony 2012?

My last blog post was about the viral video Kony 2012. I have to say I was a bit sceptical when I first saw the video but didn't think much of it at that time. I was watching it go viral for a couple of days as it's popularity became stronger and stronger. Then I came across this video by David Childerley who expressed his thoughts on the video, basically saying it was fake and that it just might have been the new 9/11 if it were to succeed. As the activists have a fair share of politicians on board, he suggests that interests of bankers might be behind the project (the same way as it turned out in the case of 9/11).

I must say that this guy has a point, now that I think about it. Could this really be an excuse for the US (and it's leaders, political as well as interest groups) to deploy troops in a foreign country again? We can not be sure if this is the case, as we can not say for certain as in the case of 9/11 (there still is no hard evidence for the 9/11 actions to be a politically planned action to invade the East for oil, as far as I know). But the Kony case does have similarities, doesn't it? One of the main differences is that 9/11 came at the brink of the millenium and Kony some 11 years later. Not a huge time span there if we shine light on it from a classical perspective. But when you think about it how the world wide web has evolved in that time, we get to see the big picture, why Kony might fail before it even starts to become reality. People all over the world are connected nowadays via the web, much more so than back in 2001. The power of connectedness is obvious in the revealing of this "scam" (let us presume, for the sake of this blog post and the point I am trying to make, that it is indeed a scam) as thousand if not millions have changed their perspective on the Phony case and might have stopped another disaster from happening. As I see it, as well as David Childerlay, this is the power of today's social networks and the internet.

Is the era of manipulation on the grand scale coming to an end? I do not dare to predict it, as people will always find a way to manipulate with the masses, but one thing is for sure... we sure will make it harder for them.

KONY 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc

A friend of mine shared a video on Facebook today, Kony 2012. First I was sceptical and thought "Right, just another help Africa propaganda clip" but decided to watch it anyway. And I was pleasantly surprised. It supports and acts on the idea of stopping Joseph Kony from conducting crimes against humanity in Uganda. Half way through, the video got me thinking. It is stated that Facebook is becoming a borderless state of some sort, which, if combined, would be bigger than the USA (as far as the number of users goes). According to Facebook's statistics the community is more than 845 million strong. It is also stated in the video that the world as we know it is changing. The people are rallying up and starting to demand change. Online communities are a great way to do so. Many successful campaigns have prospered due to people connecting over the web, from all over the world. Is this really becoming a world-changer? Are we witnessing some sort of a new politics and world government forming before our eyes (on our monitors)?
"The internet" has a voice in today's world and is becoming ever so louder. A prime example of people stepping up and forming an idea-driven order is the IPP - the International Pirate Party. The Pirate Party has managed to enter the German parliament - talk about power of will and new media.

I bet we will be seeing more and more cases like the IPP and Kony2012, all thanks to the new world superpower - the web.