New American Dream

Whitney Trettien

"In fact, if anything, corporate influence has become more insidious, more nuanced, harder to identify.

"We have to understand new media tools,
and to understand them we have to use them,
exploit them for our own purposes.

THE New American Dream Interview

WHITNEY TRETTIEN, 23, lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

She is a graduate student in the Comparative Media Studies program at MIT, where she is working on a thesis exploring the relationship between seventeenth-century poetry generators and the practices of contemporary digital poetry.

She works at the HyperStudio lab for the digital humanities.

Whitney is also a Green Party activist, writer and editor.

She co-edited Cost of Freedom: The Anthology of Peace & Activism [Howling Dog Press 2007] http://costoffreedombook.blogspot.com/


More about Whitney Trettien:
http://blog.whitneyannetrettien.com/
http://www.whitneyannetrettien.com

__________

The New American Dream Trivia Question:

To win a copy of one of Palecek's books, or leftover Christmas candy, or maybe a "Deception Dollar," be the first one to correctly answer the following.

Whitney Trettien would rather be ....

a. Lead stylist at the Dreadlocks Depot in Des Moines b. Translating "My Pet Goat" from the original Old English to send to George W. Bush at Lewisburg through the books to prisoners program c. Crunching crumpets in Cambridge ... England d. Reading an easy dictionary in Harvard Square e. How about Omaha, yeah, just get me away from all this vegetarian, book-learnin' culture crap f. Green Party United States Dictator For a Day

__________

NAD: Whitney, hello, thank you for taking the time for this.


WHITNEY TRETTIEN:

You're welcome.




NAD: You are from Maryland, do I have that right?


WHITNEY TRETTIEN:

Yes!




NAD: You went to Hood College in Frederick, majoring in English and philosophy. You also studied Latin, Old English and Ancient Greek.


WHITNEY TRETTIEN:

A little.




NAD: And now you are studying new media.

So ... you should know where we have been and where we are going.

Where is that anyway? And where can we buy a map?


WHITNEY TRETTIEN:

Well, I don't know. But it won't be where you'd expect.




NAD: Do you feel as if you are breaking new ground in your work at MIT?

Do you have an opinion to offer about the future of newspapers, TV, radio — online media?


WHITNEY TRETTIEN:

Newspapers, TV and radio are changing, but they aren't going anywhere.

I'm going to pull a Palin and answer this question the way I want it to be asked. What are progressives, anarchists and activists going to learn from new media?

I hate to say this, but we're stuck in the Dark Ages.

I hate to say this, but we're stuck in the Dark Ages.

We're still building bomb shelters on a ranch in Wyoming to prevent the coming dictatorship.

And while I hate to burst anyone's bubble, that just isn't the way it's going to go down.

There's a real technophobia in the progressive movement.

On the one hand, I understand it — technology has brought us pollution, scary super-viruses and the potential for nuclear annihilation.

That shit's scary.

On the other hand, we've let this fear lead us to reject all technologies — even those that could support our causes.

Despite the fact that the internet has more potential to change person's mind (and life) than 10 million viewings of Critical Mass, many infoshops and radical libraries still don't provide access to computers or the web.

Newspapers, TV and radio are changing,

but they aren't going anywhere.

Fewer still have websites, or blog about their work, or make use of social networking and filesharing sites to distribute their literature and films. Why?

There's also a naivete about technology in progressive and anarchist circles. Even one of our most brilliant supporters, Noam Chomsky, calls technology "a pretty neutral instrument" — a contentious claim, to say the least.

Some people spend their whole lives studying technology and media, and guess what — their findings might surprise you.

We need to drop a few of their books onto our reading lists.

I understand the concerns over corporate control of media.

But the old David-vs.-Goliath tale of the small-town activist against the big scary faceless corporation is changing.

It's no longer enough to look at ownership.

In fact, if anything, corporate influence has become more insidious, more nuanced, harder to identify.

We have to understand new media tools, and to understand them we have to use them, exploit them for our own purposes.

By the way, if anyone is interested I highly recommend Stephen Duncombe's Dream: Re-imaging Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy.

It challenges the idea that rationality — and our unwavering belief that the facts will change everything — is the key to changing the world.

Clearly facts haven't been enough to end the occupation of Iraq, or impeach Bush.

Not only is there absolutely no evidence for the existence of any kind of supernatural being or power,
you just plain don't need one to live a good life.

There's something infinitely comforting in the thought
that every day on earth is all that there is;
and after your days are up, it's over.




NAD: Would you like to choose one of these to answer, elaborate on?

I don't ask this to make fun. I ask because I really seek the answers.

Are UFOs real?
WHITNEY TRETTIEN:
No. Maybe.


Did we land on the moon in 1968?
WHITNEY TRETTIEN:
I lean toward yes.


Did Bush knock down the towers?
WHITNEY TRETTIEN:
No.


Was Paul Wellstone's death an accident?
WHITNEY TRETTIEN:
I don't have enough facts.


The Oklahoma City bombing?
Wasn't that just another U.S. government terrorist exercise?
Or not.
WHITNEY TRETTIEN:
No.


Waco. We burned kids, right?
You can see flames shooting out of the tanks. Or not.
WHITNEY TRETTIEN:
Yes. Probably.


Is Bigfoot real?
WHITNEY TRETTIEN:
I want to believe!


Is there a God?
WHITNEY TRETTIEN:
No.

Not only is there absolutely no evidence for the existence of any kind of supernatural being or power, you just plain don't need one to live a good life.

With or without God, we're socialized to live relatively peacefully in a shared environment.

In truth, I actually find the thought of any god or afterlife a little disturbing.

There's something infinitely comforting in the thought that every day on earth is all that there is; and after your days are up, it's over.

For good and for always. Thank the sweet lord for that.




NAD: What's next for you after graduate school?

Government work? Running for office, teaching? Travel, get outa here?


WHITNEY TRETTIEN:

I'm afraid to say, more graduate school.




NAD: Tell the rest of us why we should not despair over the state of the mainstream, corporate media in the United States.

Or not.


WHITNEY TRETTIEN:

Because you have the power to make your own media. Like you're doing with this website. So who cares about them? Get out there and tell your own story.




NAD: Do you have hope in Obama?

Why?

Why not?


WHITNEY TRETTIEN:

Yes and no.

I have hope that the energy he's created around his candidacy and, now, his presidency will actually be a transformative moment for many people simply through the power of what he's calling hope.

In other words, whether or not you feel his brand of hope is legit (on a lot of issues, I don't think it is), a lot of people do, and feel inspired.

On the night of the election here in Cambridge, huge crowds of people were standing on street corners crying and hugging strangers and singing and feeling collectively good in a way I don't think I've ever seen.

On the night of the election here in Cambridge, huge crowds of people were standing on street corners crying and hugging strangers and singing and feeling collectively good in a way I don't think I've ever seen.

That in itself, no matter what you think about what created it, is transformative.

But he's not an anti-war president — he's been perfectly clear about that. And he's not the best on gay rights.

And he supports Israel (and was uncomfortably silent during the first week of Israel's recent incursion into Gaza, despite breaking his vow not to talk about international affairs as President-elect during the Mumbai attacks).

And he voted for the FISA Act. And he refuses to even host hearings on the criminal actions of Bush and Cheney, which, as Paul Krugman (of all people) has pointed out recently, only aid and abet their crimes.

And, of course, he's still a corporate-funded Democrat.

For all these reasons and more, he didn't get my vote.

But for the sake of all of us who still have to live on this chunk of land we call the United States of America, I sure hope he does a decent job.




NAD: Does your favorite coffee cup have words on it?

What are they?


WHITNEY TRETTIEN:

"Drink Tea"




NAD: What did you absolutely have to get done by noon today?


WHITNEY TRETTIEN:

Revising a grant proposal and an article on a conference I recently attended. I still have an hour and forty-five minutes!




NAD: How about by Christmas 2009?


WHITNEY TRETTIEN:

I have to move to a new place to attend another graduate school.

I don't know what place or what school yet.

I also have to finish my Masters thesis and about half a dozen papers that are waiting in the wings.

__________

Whitney Trettien's Answer to the Trivia Question:

g. Reviving an abandoned almond farm in Majorca with a bunch of banjo-pluckin' anarcho-primitivists.