Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 10:46:33 -0800 (PST)
Subject: AUT: Where on the political spectrum is the "Californian Ideology"?



http://cci.wmin.ac.uk/HRC/ci/calif5.html

"Across the world, the Californian Ideology has been
embraced as
an optimistic and emancipatory form of technological
determinism. Yet, this utopian fantasy of the West
Coast depends upon its blindness towards - and
dependence on - the social and racial polarisation of
the society from which it was born. Despite its
radical rhetoric, the Californian Ideology is
ultimately pessimistic about fundamental social
change. Unlike the hippies, its advocates are not
struggling to build 'ecotopia' or even to help revive
the New Deal. Instead, the social liberalism of New
Left and the economic liberalism of New Right have
converged into an ambiguous dream of a hi-tech
'Jeffersonian democracy'. Interpreted generously, this
retro-futurism could be a vision of a cybernetic
frontier where hi-tech artisans discover their
individual self-fulfillment in either the electronic
agora or the electronic marketplace. However, as the
zeitgeist of the 'virtual class', the Californian
Ideology is at the same time an exclusive faith. If
only some people have access to the new information
technologies, 'Jeffersonian democracy' can become a
hi-tech version of the plantation economy of the Old
South. Reflecting its deep ambiguity, the Californian
Ideology's technological determinism is not simply
optimistic and emancipatory. It is simultaneously a
deeply pessimistic and repressive vision of the
future."

Can we even place the "California Ideology" on the
political spectrum? Or is it such a mix, that it "goes
beyond left vs right" (which is a fascist slogan)?

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