"...stay alive, all things will change around..."
The Anarchives 				Volume 2 Issue 22
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               --/\--			The Information Institution:
             /  /  \  \			oligopoly, monopoly, and power
         ---|--/----\--|---		
             \/      \/			by Jesse Hirsh
             /\______/\			

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this is the first of a series of two papers i'm writing over the coming 
few weeks...

comments and feedback are much appreciated,
as i intend on combining this paper with the upcoming one
to form the foundation of a much larger work.
long-time readers i apologize for any overlap ;)

love and revolution

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"Electronic technology is conducive to freedom." (Pool, 1983, pp. 231)

So these are the words of the optimistic and opportunistic.

Cyber culture itself promises to alter existing balances of 
socio-economic  power and access. It carries with it the metaphor of the 
frontier, which  is explicitly and inherently economic imagery. The 
frontier is derived  from the concept of frontier capitalism; the 
landscape that is ripe for  development, new resources, and new 
industries to build. The question  for frontierswomen and frontiersmen is 
what model of the frontier they  are following. Some envision the 
frontier in the context of opportunity, of new wealth creation and 
subsequent dissemination and decentralization of wealth and power. The 
traditional model of the frontier however is a sharp contrast to the 
romanticized vision perpetuated by agents of indoctrination like WIRED 
magazine. Frontiers are primarily settings of  rape, plunder, and 
hoarding of wealth. While Hollywood has glamourized  the frontier, few 
associate the building of the industrial wild  west with the mass amounts 
of slave-labour that were used to build what  is now one of the world's 
most prosperous economies. Many pioneers  hungry for gold, wealth, and 
power showed up on the frontier ready  for glory but ended up in a dismal 
plight of exploitation, greed, and misery.

Where do we stand at the emergence of a new frontier?

The world is a stage; an arena of political competition in which survival 
has been equated with success and getting ahead is the only alternative 
to falling behind.

Information technology is an enabling technology; it empowers the user 
with new abilities, with greater tools to accomplish greater tasks.
It also plays the role of bond within a global institution; tying 
together millions, extending power outward, allowing it to fully 
integrate and proliferate. The liberation of information.

This paper will explore a number of issues concerning the emerging  
'Information Infrastructure', and the social, economic, and hence  
political effects of its inception.

The main juxtaposition within this paper is between the issue of whether  
Information Technology itself leads towards decentralization, or if in  
fact it is an agent of centralization in an era of globalization.

Ithiel de Sola Pool in his book, "Technologies Of Freedom", presents an  
argument of decentralization, and the liberating effects of information  
technologies. This paper will address some of the issues raised by Pool,  
and demonstrate with the aid of a number of thinkers, that his ideas may  
be purely optimistic and opportunistic, as reality seems to dictate  
otherwise.

In examining the area of Information Technology, Pool's emphasis, like  
many 'servants of empire' is on policy. The redemption of the bureaucrat  
is to examine how public policy can curb or regulate the enormous  
economic power that the bureaucracy itself protects. The legal system 
since  its early expressions in Plato, has served to maintain order, 
maintain the status-quo, and maintain historical imperial interests. 
Nonetheless, we are led to believe (see indoctrination)  that public 
policy is the solution to all the worlds problems. In this we  can see 
the emphasis on 'sustained innovation' as means of expanding  empire and 
ensuring order.

This paper hopes to critically address this ideology of technology. In 
order to effectively address some of the issues in such an immense and 
growing are such as Information Technology, the paper needs to adopt a 
'flow' that in someway touches upon relevant subjects, yet at the same 
time begins to paint a picture of what is now reality. As we become 
overloaded with information seeking to create a virtual reality, 
language becomes the last media potentially autonomous enough to  
honestly describe what is unfolding in the fast approaching 
future. In encountering this paper the reader should buckle-up for a 
ride, and flow  with the prose, as the author attempts to use the 
language to present an argument of institution, and the elite that are 
co-dependent with this institution.

So let us begin with Pool's approach to IT policy which encompasses the  
following criteria:

"Definition of the domain in which the policy operates
Availability of resources
Organization of access to resources
Establishment and enforcement of norms and controls
Problems at the system boundaries" (Pool 1983, pp. 9)

In answering these criteria, the nature of the technology is 
illuminated,  whether decentralizing or centralizing. It is the nature in 
which these  topics are answered of course that differentiates between 
Pool's  optimistic outlook and other, perhaps more realistic outlooks.
Pool's position can be crudely summarized as follows:

"Trends between such centralizing and decentralizing alternatives may  
zigzag as technological and tariff changes affect relative prices, but  
the costs of computing equipment used to store data locally, to compress  
it, and to process it will probably fall farther and faster than the  
costs of transmission. This trend favours decentralization. More and more 
will be done at the  distributed nodes of networks to economize on 
transmission. That  dispersion will be pushed farthest by big users, for 
they have the  resources and technical capability to do so. When in large 
enterprises  the competence and autonomy of scattered nodes are thus 
strengthened and  their subservience to a center is thus lessened, the 
result,  paradoxically, may be decentralization" (Pool 1983, pp. 228-9)

This analysis fails in that it is shallow and superficial. It places  
emphasis on a decentralization that occurs on one level, which is fueled  
by centralization that occurs on all levels. This is perhaps the 
greatest  fear within the new paradigm, in that realities become so 
subjective,  that perceptions of the emerging socio-political-economic 
environment are  plagued by visions of personal gain rather than the true 
fear of  collective loss.

Technological turnover is not driven by equitable development, rather 
dictated by profit motives in tandem with social control. As prices for 
storage and processing power go down,  information exchange and access 
rates go up. The more you get involved  the more they're is to do. 
Information is a resource of abundance, it  increases with use, and 
increasingly involves the user with greater use.  Technological 
dependency quickly ensues as the degree and rate of technological 
turnover is controlled.

Power is at the core of the entire technological change; media is an 
inherent source of political power and political organization. The new 
media represent the evolution of power; the implosion of empire as a 
means of imperial growth.

The industrial-military complex does not dissolve, rather it matures and 
evolves. It embraces the politics of inclusion, absorbing all within its 
structure. What began in the fifties and sixties with the full 
integration of military and industry into the perpetual war economy, now 
becomes the full integration of the psychological and biological 
extensions of the same institution. 

"In 1910, the year of the merger Pres Thoedore Vail of AT&T described  
the new arrangement as "One system with a common policy, common purpose  
and common action; comprehensive, universal, interdependent,  
intercommunicating like the highway system of the country, extending 
from  every door to every other door, affording electrical communication 
of  every kind, from every one at every place to every one at every 
other  place." (Pool 1983, pp. 29-30)
____________

Every medium contains within itself its predecessor. The printed word has 
as content the orality of the spoken word. Television absorbed the medium 
of film, using it as content. The medium of the automobile took over 
where the horse and buggy left off, hence the references to horse power 
that still permeate.

The emerging information technology is the convergence of media. It is 
the creation of the information super-highway which absorbs almost all 
the reining major media. Television, video, radio, computer, written 
word, spoken word, to name the obvious are all converged to form the 
super media. It encompasses a total media environment within its boundaries.
The global information system becomes total.
______________________

"So now after a century during which many fingers wagged "no," the  
telephone system has in fact become what its creators always thought it  
would be, a hybrid telephonic and telegraphic system, carrying both 
human  voice and written messages over the same lines." (Pool 1983, pp. 30)

The information revolution creates global information institutions that 
harness all the effects and benefits of globalization, laying the 
foundation for the global corporate state. The individuals in control of 
these institutions form a political elite, whose strength grows as its 
numbers diminish. The iron law of oligarchy continues as global 
organization yields global rule, and a global elite. Among the ranks of 
this elite are the owners of the technology, supported by subservient 
classes of a corporate and technical elite.

"In fact, each generation of new business wealth in the early years of  
this country was a little richer than the previous one, which forced the  
assimilation process. The 'old' rich either intermarried with the new  
money, put their wealth into corporate stock, or fell by the wayside." 
(Domhoff 1967, pp. 13)

Marshall McLuhan in The Global Village illustrates the transformative and 
oligarchic natures of the emerging media. It is in this work that McLuhan 
identifies the trend in communications that he terms "Global Robotism". 
This term describes a method of social organization that accompanies the 
proliferation of electronic media such as computers, satellites, global 
networks, and multi-way video communication. Humanity extends itself into 
the electronic environment, lending itself to electronic organization. We 
witness the emergence of a global machine, a global computer that is 
alive with a developing global consciousness, derived from the collective 
efforts of millions of human participants. GAIA rises from the 
industrialized world.

"As man succeeds in translating his central nervous system into 
electronic circuitry, he stands on the threshold of outering his 
consciousness into the computer." (Mcluhan 1989, pp. 94)

"As the institutional means of power and the means of communications that 
tie them together have become steadily more efficient, those now in 
command of them have come into command of instruments of rule quite 
unsurpassed in the history of mankind." (Mills 1956, pp. 23)

The information revolution creates a new institution that enhances 
existing ones, while creating a new and unique global entity. The 
proliferation of computers and advanced communication technology 
throughout society, provide the medium that is revolutionizing the means 
of production. Converging media create the potential for a unified 
electronic environment in which mass media are homogenized into a 
standardized mosaic of human communication. Decentralization on the micro 
level yields massive centralization on the macro scale. Multimedia and 
interactive technologies become the central modes of communication, and a 
new environment is created in which everything is considered data; the 
user merges with the data base as the system becomes so total that 
exclusion is a technical impossibility. The earth reduces itself to 
binary code to form an institution of global power.

"More and more people will enter the market of information exchange, lose 
their private identities in the process, but emerge with the ability to 
interact with any person on the face of the globe. Mass, spontaneous 
electronic referendums will sweep across continents. The concept of 
nationalism will fade and regional governments will fall as the political 
implications of spaceship earth create a world government." (McLuhan 
1989, pp.118)

The people in control of this emerging global governance, wield power 
unsurpassed by previous regimes or empires; the hegemony of information 
power. The information media penetrates into our lives, transforming us: 
the media is the message. 

"There are no more passengers, only crew. Such a grasp of totality 
suggests the possibility of control not only of the planet but of change 
itself." (McLuhan 1989, pp. 98)

The information revolution is a bourgeois corporate revolution, of the 
highest magnitude. Enacted by large conglomerates, it is fueled by their 
continued investment and research & development. The corporate world 
benefits the most from the success of the information revolution. This is 
true for the simple reason that they own, operate, and create the 
revolution. Through its enactment the corporate sector is experiencing 
its greatest empowerment ever, gross profits at the highest levels and 
the expansion of the corporate state.

This empowerment is accompanied by the emergence of a corporate elite. An 
elite that integrates itself into the foundation, or backbone of the 
information society. Their infiltration if not creation of the emerging 
environment of human communication places them at centre-ground; 
everywhere and yet seemingly nowhere at all times.

"The multi-carrier media corporation has the peculiar ability to be a 
media orchestrator, to link all video-related technologies, whether 
satellite, earth station, microwave, data base, or computer into a 
resonating whole." (McLuhan 1989, pp. 119)

The two corporate giants, American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) and 
International Business Machines (IBM), are built upon information 
technology, and through the information revolution are increasing their 
global dominance. Through centralized government-military-industrial 
spending and their own monopolistic practices they are among the largest 
corporations in the world. Together they hold the copyrights and patents 
on most of the technology of the past, present, and future. Now through 
deregulation these American centred organizations are able to wield and 
develop their power on a global scale. Their presence within the global 
arena places them as competitors for global power. 

"We delude ourselves if we believe that we participate in a democratic  
polity, except in the Orwellian sense of educated discourse" (Chomsky 
1990, pp. 24)

On Thursday Sept 21 1995 there was a significant if not paramount  
historical event.

American Telephone & Telegraph, in a time of mergers and consolidation,  
announced a three-way split. This should be viewed as a substantial 
power  move of a global nature. AT&T is a leading corporate power. They 
embody  corporate governance. Metaphorically speaking this breakup was 
the  equivalent of the brain detaching itself from a cumbersome body.

The core of the break-up resides in the corporation that will retain the  
AT&T name. This corporation will compose of AT&T's phone networks,  
cellular networks, and capital corporation; in addition of course to 
Bell  Labs, perhaps the most advanced research & development organization 
in  the world.

Please note that the networks that will remain AT&T, compromise the  
backbone of what emerges as the electronic conscious. The phone networks  
are a in part a monopoly of long distance networks, combined with  
extensive fiber networks with global reach. The cellular networks,  
formerly McCaw Communications, are what will soon become the  
infrastructure of multi-way television, and the 9 Billion dollar, Bill  
Gates - AT&T, Teledesic Corp which is attempting to launch 900  
"low-altitude" satellites to carry a larger cellular network. AT&T 
capital of course owns all the rest. The two companies that will  break 
off from the old mammoth of AT&T will still be owned by AT&T  Capital, 
much like the rest of the capital world.

With this breakup AT&T becomes much more flexible in being able to  
dominate the global market, and in essence become the very fabric that  
this new market is being built upon.

On the Thursday when all this happened almost 12 Billion dollars was  
injected into AT&T after they announced this move. Clearly capital  
approved this strategic move, and AT&T has been given their mandate for  
global domination.

The power AT&T have now, at the dawn of the information age, is  
staggering, and I would argue, uncomprehensible. This power will grow  
exponentially, accelerating an already accelerated rate of change after  
the announcement of this break-up.

Liberal democracy depends upon the incospicuousness of AT&T, and the  
ignorance of corporate governance.

If the true role of AT&T were to be laid out on the table, the farce of  
democracy would dissolve, as clearly AT&T is not a democratic  
institution, and yet it dominates the world through immense profits and  
control of communications.

"The control system in today's corporations, when it does not lie solely  
in the directors as in the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, 
lies  in a combination of the directors of a so-called control block (a  
misnomer, incidentally) plus the directors themselves. For practical  
purposes, therefore, the control or power element in most large  
corporations rests in its group of directors and it is autonomous - or  
autonomous if taken together with a control block. And inheritance tax  
distribution of stock being what it is, the trend is increasingly to  
management autonomy. This is a self-perpetuating oligarchy." 
(Berle 1958, pp. 10)
________

"An uncentralized set of communications systems can function as a single  
system only if traffic on each network can move through interfaces onto  
the other networks. The critical requirements are three: the right to  
interconnect, conformity to technical standards that make interfacing  
possible, and a directory system." (Pool 1983, pp. 230)

Integration clearly becomes the metaphor for the technological change. 
It  is the driving motif behind creating the network of total information.

"Three levels of integration:
1. Inner. Hyper-concentration and acceleration of computing power.
2. Outer. Standardization for international telecommunication networks.
3. Interactive. Biological interactivity between humans and machine in  
virtual reality." (DeKerckhove 1995, pp. 39)

It's interesting to note that many thinkers addressing the issue of  
integration see the motif of standardization and conformity as the  
central aspect of change. Although this essay does not touch on the  
subject of the role of the psyche and mind with this technological  
change, Jacques Ellul gives some interesting insight:

"Propaganda is called upon to solve problems created by technology, to  
play on maladjustments, and to integrate the individual into a  
technological world. Propaganda is a good deal less the political weapon 
of a regime (it is that also) than the effect of a technological society 
that embraces the entire man and tends to be a completely integrated 
society." (Ellul 1961, pp. xvii)

It's difficult to resist touching upon the area of propaganda when  
dealing with the subject of integration. This is perhaps an implicit 
concern  of this essay, especially important when examining the 
following  organization.

For it is within the struggle of integration and standardization that  
another major player in the on-going information revolution becomes  
evident. They go by the name SAIC, Scientific Applications 
International,  and they are a naked example of a power elite.

The Internet domain registration monopoly (internic.net) is indeed owned  
by the military-industrial-biological complex. For once it's as if the  
double-speak vanishes and the truth is as open as a web page.

Now Internet domain registration will begin to be priced according to  
user-fees starting at $50 annually. One source, one collector of a huge  
amount of fees. One databank with all Internet registration...
Scientific Applications International Corp.

To quote "Web Reviews" an online 'emag':

"The company, with over 20,000 employees and 450 locations around the  
world, reported $1.9 billion in gross revenues in 1994. Over 90% of its  
income was generated by government contracts - more than half of that  
from defense, intelligence, and federal law enforcement contracts."
They are a large military technology corporation. Check out some of the  
projects that are listed in the corporate report:

- National Security: "Our advanced technology for the Army Global 
Command  and Control System will allow quick response deployment and 
tracking of  troops in simulated or actual events."

- Information Management: "SAIC is supporting Department of Defence's  
renovation of the 52-year-old Pentagon, one of the largest buildings in  
the world and workplace for nearly 25,000 people. Under U.S. Army  
direction, our staff are creating an evolving building-wide "enterprise  
network" of shared communications and computing services. We are  
designing the network to operate more efficiently than today's disparate  
systems, yet require less human and fiscal resources to operate and  
maintain."

- Military Technology: "Our contribution to the U.S. Navy/Defense 
Nuclear  Agency Electro-Thermal Chemical Gun illustrates this new focus."
WAIT A MINUTE, READ THAT SENTENCE AGAIN...

- Military Technology: "Our contribution to the U.S. Navy/Defense 
Nuclear  Agency Electro-Thermal Chemical Gun illustrates this new focus."
WHAT IS THIS?!

- Law Enforcement: "A new SAIC system will give federal, state and local  
law enforcement agencies fast, on-line access to criminal histories."

- Environment: "SAIC supports the decontamination and decommissioning of  
defense plants and military facilities."

To quote "Web Reviews" again:
"In 1990 SAIC was indicted by the Justice Department on 10 felony counts  
for fraud in its management of a Superfund toxic cleanup site. (SAIC  
pleaded guilty.) In 1993 the Justice Department sued SAIC, accusing it 
of  civil fraud on an F15 fighter contract. In May 1995, the same month 
SAIC  purchased NSI, the company settled a suit that charged it had lied 
about  security system tests it conducted for a  Treasury Department 
currency  plant in Fort Worth, TX. (The company paid the government 
$125,000 to  cover the cost of the investigation as part of that 
settlement.)"

SAIC with the purchase of NSI, which owns Internic.net, now controls all  
Internet domain registration. A monopoly that now wants to charge $50  
annually for every domain name. Turn the funnels of money on.

On the Internet, internic.net is the "central" (catch that one),  
registration point for the Internet. Operated in conjunction with AT&T,  
internic.net is the biggest reference source on the net. Every time you  
send an email with an address like "lglobal.com", that name is 
referenced  to internic.net and converted to an I.P. address such as 
210.50.120.2  which denotes network topography.

So again the military controls the maps and the bureaucracy.
As an expression of global empire, SAIC is as naked as an oligarchy can 
be. Their board of directors, 23 white men, 1 white woman, and 1 perhaps  
southern European woman. Two generals, one admiral, and a vice-chairman 
of bank  of America.

SAIC's board members include Admiral Bobby Inman, former NSA head and 
deputy director of the CIA; Melvin Laird, Nixon's defense secretary; and 
retired General Max Thurman, commander of the Panama Invasion. Recently 
departed board members include Robert Gates, former CIA director; William 
Perry, current Secretary of Defense; and John Deutch, the current CIA 
director. Current SAIC government contracts include re-engineering 
information systems at the Pentagon, automation of the FBI's computerized 
fingerprint identification system, and building a national criminal 
history information system.

As incredible as this may seem, it is the empire's most stunning 
example.  For the purpose of this paper, it may be wise to also examine 
the colony's  efforts in the information revolution, and the current 
events in the  development of Canada's information infrastructure.

The information highway has become the metaphor for public debate. It has 
become the symbol for the public's perception of an information 
environment, and subsequently a reaction in governance.

As a 'public' metaphor, the information highway is a debatable concept. 
Often the issues presented are indicative of the 'interest' presenting.
The 'popular' conceptions of the information highway are dangerously 
misled. The changes that accompany such an implementation of social 
organization will have a dramatic and permanent effect on society.

Dipping your head into a global synapse, submerging yourself into the 
global consciousness is a transformative experience. Your mind gets that 
kick of electricity, generating more neurons and connections. 

What is the 'order' on the net? Imagination as commodity.

With the liberation of information we approach 'total visibility'. We all 
reach the metaphor of electron, zipping across the globe winding the 
trail of our language into the linked minds of humanity. We become aware 
of levels of access, access castes.

With television 'it doesn't matter what you think it's what you feel.' 
The globs of the television decades, consolidated the homogeneity of the  
mass market.

The liberation of information that accompanies a higher level of access, 
the false sense of expressive freedom that is internally projected, we 
feel the change and express it through mutual experience.
An inherent dependence begins to accelerate with time as space is 
rendered obsolete by increasing telepresence.

Convergence and synthesis depict an implosion, the revolution is 
televised and we watch with seduced apathy. However the 'people want to 
be  information', they scream 'Access', we want 'Access', and the 
private  sector says, "it's an Internet Christmas".

The public unites into a coalition, and the private sector co-opts all 
as  consumers.

The pay-per-bit system may change the image of the multicast center in 
every home, to a super-duper remote control for everyone in tvland.

Rogers offers access to the 'network of networks' via a bottle-neck  
version of connectivity. Bandwidth coming into the home is collectively  
shared and potentially faster than existing standards. However bandwidth  
going back out is extremely limited by the cable company's network which  
lacks the proper switching equipment. Users of the network become 
passive  consumers, able to consume information without the reciprocal 
production.  Bell on the other hand will introduce the pay-per-bit system 
which tallies  a bill for usage according to data transferred in 
combination with  time used. Both of these models presented by the two 
'Canadian' cartels  of connectivity are heavily reliant on the 
broadcasting model of  communications which limits full and effective use 
of the technology to  those who can afford it.

This of course is second to the fact that other levels of access are  
used to conduct 'network analysis', maintain 'useful databases', and  
perform operations such as 'optical character recognition' in  
maintaining a state of 'total visibility'.

No-one even suspects corporate governance as the white men at the board 
table dictate, delegate, and organize self-regulation.

Do we know the future we are impulsively sliding towards? Or has it been 
chosen for us, our consent manufactured, and our tastes met with the 
emotional appeasement of a seductive consumer product...

We require an active approach towards the language, engaging it and 
discovering the root message of the medium itself.

"The professed concern for freedom of the press in the West is not very  
persuasive in the light of the easy dismissal of even extreme violations  
of the right of free expression in U.S. client states, and the actual  
performance of the media in serving the powerful and privileged as an  
agency of manipulation, indoctrination, and control. A 'democratic  
communications policy,' in contrast, would seek to develop means of  
expression and interaction that reflect the interests and concerns of 
the  general population, and to encourage their self-education and their  
individual and collective action. A policy conceived in these terms 
would  be a desideratum, though there are pitfalls and dangers that 
should not  be overlooked. But the issue is largely academic, when viewed 
in  isolation from the general social scene. The prospects for a 
democratic  communications policy are inevitably constrained by the 
distribution of  effective power to determine the course and functioning 
of major social  institutions. Hence the goal can be approached only as 
an integral part  of the further democratization of the social order. 
This central  component, with an indispensable contribution to make. 
Serious steps  towards more meaningful democracy would aim to dissolve 
the concentration  of decision-making power, which in our  societies 
resides primarily in a  state-corporate nexus. Such a conception of 
democracy, though so familiar  from early years that it might even merit 
the much-abused term  'conservative,' is remote from those that dominate 
public  discourse hardly a surprise, given its threat to established 
privilege." (Chomsky 1990, pp. 135)

Following this paper's metaphor of 'flow', let's return to Pool's  
criteria for policy.

"Definition of the domain in which the policy operates Availability of 
resources
Organization of access to resources
Establishment and enforcement of norms and controls
Problems at the system boundaries" (Pool 1983, pp. 9)

This essay has demonstrated that the conditions presented by  Pool are in 
fact dominated and controlled by an established power elite.  The domain, 
organization of access, enforcement of norms and controls,  and control 
of availability of resources are all in the domain  of a technological 
and powerful elite. Similarly, problems at the system  boundaries are 
also within the scope of this elite, as the area of  Information Warfare 
proliferates at a faster speed than the information  infrastructure itself.

It is at this point of the analysis that futility begins to creep into  
the argument, as the forces that are consolidated under the banner of 
the  information revolution appear to be insurmountable.
Of course futility is an emotion that accompanies apathy, and needs to 
be  discarded if the human species is to redeem itself.

"Human beings are the only species with a history. Whether they  also 
have a future is not so obvious. The answer will lie in the prospects  
for popular movements, with firm roots among all sectors to the margins  
within the existing social and political order: community, solidarity,  
concern for a fragile environment that will have to sustain future  
generations, creative work under voluntary control, independent thought,  
and true democratic participation in varied aspects of life."
(Chomsky 1990, pp 136)

Perhaps the most successful resistance movement, or more accurately 
described counterculture, are the so-called "hackers". The average 
computer hacker epitomizes McLuhan's concept of ground within an 
electronic environment. Under the threat of severe retaliation and 
persecution, hackers are forced to maintain a myriad of identities, 
inhabiting a widely distributed area, blending into and becoming ground. 

A hacker will have hundreds if not thousands of "accounts" or access 
points to an information system. Like the power elite themselves, 
hackers  are the reverse image, they have integrated themselves into the 
framework  of the electronic environment. Through exploration of 
"backdoors" and security holes, hackers have familiarized themselves with 
the inner workings of the system so as to dissolve into its structure. 
They have been able to obtain unlimited access, to the extent that they 
themselves actively participate in the development of the emerging media.

They are not limited by societal constraints dictating the uses of  
technology and the roles of media. Rather they are renegades, pushing 
the  limits of technology, discovering functions of the media that did 
not or  were not intended to exist.

They constitute an opposition to corporate centralization that increases  
with the success of those same corporate interests. Their belief in the  
freedom of information, places them as the most serious and severe threat 
to the emerging new order. Yet at the same time relatively little is 
known about this counterculture, an indication of their success at 
embodying the concept of ground.

This raises the role of awareness within the possibility of resistance. 
Clearly awareness is essential in determining possible courses of action. 
However awareness alone cannot achieve change, it obviously must be 
accompanied by action. One would hope that awareness would increase 
revolutionary fervour and the desires for social justice rather than 
simply unite apathy with corporate obedience.

The military-industrial complex has successfully integrated itself into 
the innermost workings of our society. Military technology can now be 
found within every home, and every workplace. The institution itself has 
effectively dissolved into the essence of our society. We are now all 
members of this powerful entity, and we must turn to the ground to not 
only ensure our survival as socially just human beings, but also fight 
for the survival of our species. The option of running away to the hills 
no longer seems to be available. We are surrounded on all sides; our only 
option is to confront the changes taking place and hope to have some 
effect on their outcome.

Our success will be gauged not only by our actions, but implicitly by 
our  conception of success. In facing the introduction and establishment 
of  new media, we must examine existing media and the role they play in  
structuring our lives.

In final summary, this paper presents the fear that established and 
historical oligopolies, are consolidating into an information monopoly.

Works Cited

A.A. Berle, Jr.; Economic Power and the Free Society: A Preliminary  
Discussion of the Corporation, New York, 1958

Chomsky, Noam. Necessary illusions: thought control in democratic 
societies. Boston, MA: South End Press. 1989

De Kerckhove, Derrick. The skin of culture : investigating the new 
electronic reality; Toronto : Somerville House Pub., 1995.

Domhoff, G. William. Who rules America? Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: 
Prentice-Hall. 1967

Ellul, Jacques; Propaganda, Alfred A Knopf, New York, 1961

McLuhan, Marshall & Powers, Bruce; The  Global Village; Oxford University 
Press, New York 1989

Mills, C. Wright (Charles Wright), 1916-1962. The Power Elite. New York 
Oxford University Press. 1956

Pool, Ithiel de Sola;  Technologies Of Freedom; Harvard U Press, 1983
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