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Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam > Blaise Pascal Instituut > Girard Studiekring > COV&R 2007 > Abstracts Papers
SIMON BUCKINGHAM SHUM
Undermining Mimetic Contagion on the Net: Argumentation Tools as Critical Voices
Email - Profile - Slides - Subtheme # 5
ABSTRACT
When we
think about how ideas spread today, we think of the internet. News, ideas and
reactions are mediated at lightning speed, whether from mass media, governments,
business, pressure groups or critically individuals, who are
empowered as never before to compete on an equal footing. In one sense the
infrastructure is increasing in sophistication, from basic email and
discussion groups, to the "Web 2.0" world of user generated blogs,
wikis, newsfeeds, shared applications, social bookmarking, podcasts, screencasts
and webcasts. All these tools make it easier for technically unskilled people to
publish multimedia, tune more selectively to channels of interest, and interact
with each other. It is self-evident that the Net can be used for good
or ill, but in the context of this conference, an urgent challenge is to reflect
on its role in shaping mimetic desire. Specifically, we are concerned
with the propagation of ideas and mobilising of social movements that sow
the seeds of hatred and violence.
While
technology is not deterministic in such a simplistic manner that we can predict
its effects without taking into account stakeholders' motivations and work
practices, like any other artifact it also has affordances, encouraging certain
modes of interaction and discouraging others by virtue of what it makes easy or
hard to do. In an important sense, the startling array of tools for digital
discourse has not evolved, failing to foster or promote more critical discourse
except by virtue of exposing us to a wider spectrum of people and sources
some of which might broaden our minds. There is nothing intrinsic in the
way in which these tools structure interaction that requires any reflection
before one can hit the 'Publish' button.
The idea
that I wish to explore is to imagine social software that in the right hands
could help to undermine the negative mimesis that Girard's anthropology of
violence and religion has identified at the root of rivalry, scapegoating, and
violence. Could such tools even convert this into positive mimesis?
Assuming that words, images and speech are the media via which "negative
mimetic contagion" propagate, then following Girard, we should expect to
see the masking and justification of violence in internet media. Just as Girard
brings to bear a critical reading of mythical accounts justifying violent
scapegoating in order to name what they conceal, what tools do we have at our
disposal to expose digital text, images and video to such critique?
A strand
of activity which shows promise in this regard is Computer-Supported Dialogue
and Argumentation, a way of conducting and analysing discourse (whether
face-to-face or over the Net) which teases apart the relationships between
issues, solutions, claims, information, and different forms of argument. Often
using visual diagrams to make tangible the key connections between ideas, such
tools highlight potentially fallacious arguments, unsubstantiated claims,
and suggest critical questions that expose implicit, possibly intentionally
hidden, premises and assumptions. While any tool is open to abuse, such tools
can improve the quality of meetings, expose faulty reasoning, and build
consensus around decisions in complex sociotechnical contexts. While such
tools may assume too great a degree of rationality on the part of those already
committed to violence, they can be used to undermine discourse on the internet
or in the media, potentially breaking the cycle of negative mimesis whereby
ideas spread through uncritical adoption. Now that anyone can critique and
annotate media on another's website, we have tools for the deconstruction of
digital discourse, and the insertion of voices that have been ignored.
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