Reading Occupy

I haven't said too much about the Occupy movements, but it's worth stressing something about the world of 2012.
 
For decades, the media-systems of the neoliberal era were built on a tiny oligopoly of First World media firms, who monopolized the means of cultural production (Hollywood studios), distribution (corporate-owned broadcasting networks) and consumption (the dominance of advertising expenditure,  which reached $466 billion in 2011).


This oligopoly had a lockdown on most forms of journalism and political activity. No, Big Media  couldn't tell people what to think, but they could -- and did -- tell people what to talk about. They controlled the discourse, and critics and dissidents had to operate on unfriendly terrain.


Not anymore. Developmental states are lighting up the global grid like a Kolkata Durga Puja procession -- the BRICs alone generated roughly $11 trillion in economic output last year, and own $4.3 trillion in hard currency reserves. Vast new digital audiences are plugged into digital media-systems which neither one-party states, comprador elites nor corporate-owned governments can effectively control. Most mainstream observers point to the boom in the commercial media of the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China). But the real story is the unprecedented explosion of non-commercial culture -- hip hop from Brazil and Russia, indie media from China and India, open source software, fan-art and machinima in videogame culture, and comics, music and music videos from practically everywhere. The transnational audience now includes 2 billion gamers, 4 billion readers, 5 billion cellphone users, and 6 billion radio listeners.

No monopoly or political authority on Earth can tell We, the people of planet Earth, what to talk about. This is a decision We must make for ourselves.

That's why the cluster of struggles which found their expression (not their final form) with the "Occupy" movement is so riveting. This isn't some flash in the pan, disconnected from other struggles. Rather, it marks the point when *all* those struggles are converging. Six billion cellphones, one world of resistance!