A Second Hand Conjecture

Turns out you’re no longer six degrees removed from hanging out with Kevin Bacon.

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Alan Finch, Helen Finch, Alan Finch the Revenge

Looking over our logs, it’s incredible how much global traffic we get from people searching for information on Alan Finch (August’s #1 ASHC keyword and a top-30 quantity since February). Perhaps a little odd for a blog that tends to focus on American party politics, economic theory and international affairs.

To recap you, Alan is an Australian man who had a double sex-change (first from male to female and then from female to male). He was the subject of a very brief AtW post by myself in February, and thereafter became the source of all this traffic.

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What would have happened if in the 1960s you’d given every Soviet citizen his own printing press and free access to a global publishing distribution network? Couldn’t have good for the Politburo is my thinking. Thus it’s profoundly encouraging reading Magda Abu-Fadil on the explosion of blogging and social networking in the Arab world.

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image: Dead Central (see alternate posters at ZNN)

George Romero is evidently taking on the dynamics of social networking and new media culture, in his latest apocalyptic zombie film Diary of the Dead. George, in an interview for the AP:

“If Hitler were alive today, he wouldn’t have to stand out in that square. He could just put out a blog and he’d have millions of followers. It’s completely uncontrolled. It’s not information, it’s opinion. And it’s scary. You can get an audience no matter what your opinion is.”

“There is serious debate going on, but most of it, and the stuff that people are attracted to, is in some way entertainment. Is Michael Moore an honest documentarian? Honestly? I don’t think he is. … The real discussion gets left behind the entertainment value.”
(Associated Press)

Romero’s zombie films have always been built around a caustic social allegory. Critical themes have ranged from racism to consumerism to xenophobia. However, I guess we bloggers are now in the crosshairs eh? Should be fun to see us getting metaphorically devoured.

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In a bottom-up rebellion in Sicily, a group of Palermo youths have started a social networking site called Addiopizzo, which provides public attention and mutual support for Sicilian businesses which publicly refuse to pay the mafia “protection” money. Evidently it’s starting to deplete the mob of what has long been its most stable revenue source.

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