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Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob
by Lee Siegel
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Synopses & Reviews From the author hailed by the New York Times Book Review for his "drive-by brilliance" and dubbed by the New York Times Magazine as "one of the country's most eloquent and acid-tongued critics" comes a ruthless challenge to the conventional wisdom about the most consequential cultural development of our time: the Internet.
Of course the Internet is not one thing or another; if anything, its boosters claim, the Web is everything at once. It's become not only our primary medium for communication and information but also the place we go to shop, to play, to debate, to find love. Lee Siegel argues that our ever-deepening immersion in life online doesn't just reshape the ordinary rhythms of our days; it also reshapes our minds and culture, in ways with which we haven't yet reckoned. The web and its cultural correlatives and by-products — such as the dominance of reality television and the rise of the "bourgeois bohemian" — have turned privacy into performance, play into commerce, and confused "self-expression" with art. And even as technology gurus ply their trade using the language of freedom and democracy, we cede more and more control of our freedom and individuality to the needs of the machine — that confluence of business and technology whose boundaries now stretch to encompass almost all human activity.
Siegel's argument isn't a Luddite intervention against the Internet itself but rather a bracing appeal for us to contend with how it is transforming us all. Dazzlingly erudite, full of startlingly original insights, and buoyed by sharp wit, Against the Machine will force you to see our culture — for better and worse — in an entirely new way. Review: "Siegel, a controversial former NewRepublic.com blogger and past Slate.com art critic, provides a fascinating look at how the Internet is reshaping the way we think about ourselves and the world. Siegel explores how the Internet affects culture and social life, particularly the psychological, emotional and social cost of high-tech solitude. Arguing that the Internet's widespread anonymity eliminates boundaries, Siegel discusses the half-fantasy, half-realism of online personas. Internet pornography, Siegel intones, collapses public and private, transforming others into the instrument of the viewer's will. By experiencing virtual selves rather than other individuals, a danger arises: people run the risk of being reduced to personas that other Internet users manipulate toward their own ends. Insightful and well written with convincing evidence to support Siegel's polemic, this book is a welcome addition to the debate on the personal ramifications of living in a wired world." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review: "We must first address biography, as the author does in his introduction. Lee Siegel, an editor at the New Republic, wrote a culture blog for the magazine. When readers responded with slurs and curses (as is common on the Web), Mr. Siegel posed as a member of his own audience, whereby he delivered a screed against his detractors and a paean to himself. This ended his blogging career. Siegel describes ..." Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) his actions as a 'prank.' Later in the book, however, he shakes his fist at a succession of online liars and frauds (some of whom might also consider their actions to be 'pranks'). It would at least be sporting if the author had made a nod toward himself as a possible member of that tribe. Siegel's book is a jeremiad against the ills the Internet has visited upon our lives. He raises important points, many of them previously made by others but forcefully recapitulated here: the Web's role in promoting social isolation; the confusion of popularity — voting for favorites — with true democracy; the economic motives driving the Web, and the use of 'participatory culture' as a lure for customers; the constant delivery of undigested information bits, knowledge 'withering away into information.' As an antidote, he calls for the return of the editor, reviewer, expert, artist — all the learned and experienced people swept out in the Web's shameless glorification of indiscriminate self-expression. His position is unpopular, branded 'elitist,' but it needs to be said: All people are created equal, but all opinions are not. But the author does himself no favors with his presentation. He writes in the pitch of what he himself has criticized as 'the sound of the blogosphere': that hectoring, angry, bragging, unforgiving tone. Among his specialties are hyperbole — 'Shopping on-line at eBay,' he says, 'is an absolute, totalizing experience that fills your mind and appropriates your will' — and undifferentiated scorn — 'All these mostly young people on this supposedly wild, egalitarian, hierarchy-shattering medium, where anything supposedly goes, are cautious and derivative.' Even readers inclined to agree with him (such as this one) will feel pummeled. We're punched left, right, left — at one point cornered by nine heavyweight recruits (including Marx, Schumpeter, Nietzsche, Nero and Jesus) within two pages. Sections like these show off Siegel's bookshelf but leave the reader without a moment for reflection. The problem at the heart of this book is its oppressive cynicism. The author paints everyone he sees as a huckster, poseur, opportunist, hypocrite, liar or pornographer. He cannot admit it's not all evil out there. Despite the junk shown on YouTube, the lies told on Facebook, the anonymous trash talk that passes for reader comments — despite all that, there is a generation that has been born to the Web and is finding its way through it. It does no good to brand them all as lazy makers of mash-ups and vapid self-displays. Siegel quotes Spinoza: 'All things excellent are both difficult and rare.' He should expect that most of what he's going to see on the Internet will be flotsam. Why shake a finger and scold? It's appropriate that 12-year-olds should swoon before the Web: It's the defining tool of their time. They are thinking about the Web in ways that the 50-something Siegel (and this reviewer) cannot possibly comprehend. Maybe he doesn't remember the curiosity, the excitement, the sheer joy one feels when trying something new and unbounded. The author also makes a critical mistake in believing that technology is 'neutral, value-free, neither inherently good nor bad.' The internal structures of complex technologies have a way of recreating themselves in the social world. The Web runs over a network: isolated machines communicating through the limited, though growing, vocabulary of what can appear on a Web page. People are not (necessarily) the villains; they are struggling mightily to turn their isolated computers into a means of drawing closer in a fluid world. Siegel's most original comments concern his own field, journalism. He notes that newspapers have not been critical of the Web but have been cowering in its wake, leaving experienced, senior journalists trembling to be taken seriously by 20-somethings with their barely literate blogs. The entire profession — a pillar of our democracy — seems on the verge of drowning in the wild, dark sea of 'citizen journalism.' How, then, can professional journalists like Siegel regain their stature? Not by writing a book full of scorn and anger. In the face of his relentless cynicism, even the most devoted technology critic will feel the need to stand up and say something nice about the Web and the mass of humanity using it, which is probably not what the author intended. Ellen Ullman, a former software engineer, is the author of 'Close to the Machine: Technophilia and its Discontents' and 'The Bug: A Novel.'" Reviewed by Ellen Ullman, Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
(hide most of this review)Review: "What makes Siegel's book so thought-provoking is the way he delineates the economic forces behind the Web." USA Today Review: "One of the improbable virtues of Against the Machine is that it presents a rigorously sane, fair and illuminating incarnation of its more often hotheaded author." Janet Maslin, New York TimesReview: "[An] intelligent and tautly written challenge to online's conventional wisdom." Houston Chronicle Review: "[A] healthy dose of iconoclasm on a service that so many accept as crucial." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Synopsis: In the manner of great works of criticism like Susan Sontag's On Photography, Siegel forces readers to radically rethink a familiar medium. Like On Bullshit and Letter to a Christian Nation, Against the Machine offers a bracingly original perspective to an essential ongoing debate. About the Author Lee Siegel is the author of the essay collections Falling Upwards and Not Remotely Controlled. In 2002 he received the National Magazine Award for Reviews and Criticism. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780385522656
- Subtitle:
- Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob
- Author:
- Siegel, Lee
- Publisher:
- Spiegel & Grau
- Subject:
- Media Studies
- Subject:
- Popular Culture
- Subject:
- Information technology
- Subject:
- Social Aspects - General
- Subject:
- Social aspects
- Subject:
- Internet - General
- Publication Date:
- January 2008
- Binding:
- Hardcover
- Language:
- English
- Pages:
- 182
- Dimensions:
- 8.58x6.54x.80 in. .67 lbs.
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