Bernard Stiegler: Time for reflection

In the third part of his column on cultural politics 2.0, French philosopher Bernard Stiegler appeals for an intelligent and critical use of interactive mass media formats.


Democracy versus telecracy

According to Bernard Stiegler, interactive mass media exhaust people’s attention to such a degree these days that the process of opinion formation is destroyed. People only do react dimly to the contents overflowing them.

The problem of social control in the omniscient internet

The internet has the (good) reputation of publishing and accusing anything evil. But the release of secret contents/documents on the internet by groups or single persons causes enormous social damage. WikiLeaks has deprived the state of its secret sphere, and diplomacy has been deprived of the much needed important room for manoeuvre.

Time for reflection

The private sphere may be a possible calming influence generating a new understanding of politics and democracy: information shouldn’t just be checked off with a “like” or “dislike”, but pondered and evaluated. If real values and opinions are present and are exchanged in public space (e.g. in a café or the internet), a collective reflection is generated – and that’s politics.