The Pub-lic Sphere

[e_dog]

Witness if you can bare it: the death of the pub. A venerable social institution, taking hold, for the modern age, of the old tradition of the tavern, the pub created a space for the british and irish working class to congregate in "public" after hours, over beers, to discuss the world and socialize. Now, in Silicon Valley, we can see the demise of this humanist enterprise into the cybernetic web which is the trap of human creativity. The technologization of humanity even overtakes the drunken sages of the bamboo grove.

There are now internet bars. Wireless access has reached the pub.

Instead of the pure (albeit, intoxicated, haze of) interaction of talking humans there is the mediatized interaction of people gazing at a glowing screen. This is the end of humanity. The internet cafe was one thing, replacing the book and the caffiend writer's notebook with the notebook computer. But when the bars go digital, the essence of man has spilled into the anonymous net of control masquerading as freedom. B-bye to the discoteque that silly circus; b-bye even to the dancing mechanical bull. Welcome to the desert of the reel.

[jimboloco]

Oh, man, next thing, will be the damn internet jolloies in gaming rooms, and outer space.
Nothing worse than a drunk hacker. Wait til I come back stoned. Nowe that is what we need, cannibas shop- coffee shops like in Amsterdamn, man.

I did get a bit of pub experience in England, 1969, summer. Had graduated from college, barely, went on a holiday then onward to the military, Vietnam, the streets and protest, and a downward spiral, with forlorn times. I could have used a friendly pub, but American bars aren't mostly like that anyhow. Not like the English pubs I saw that summer, really family affairs, yes.

I don't get out a lot anymore. Just work and family outings. Yet am part of the slumbering underground, waiting to speak truth to power.