4. Facebook: the opium of the people ‘ Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation.’
5. Facebook: the opium of the people ‘ Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers from the chain not so that man will wear the chain without any fantasy or consolation but so that he will shake off the chain and cull the living flower. The criticism of religion disillusions man to make him think and act and shape his reality, so that he will revolve round himself and therefore round his true sun.’
6. Social networking technologies: A critique Define politics : politics is the process through which to maintain commonality and recognise and conciliate conflict with others in pursuit of shared goods. And following Aristotle, politics properly relates to what pertains to the general, comprehensive or public order of a polity.
22. So what can be done? ‘ a powerful new online communication and collaboration space designed specifically for the world’s top decision-makers.’
23.
24. Conclusion For those without power and who cannot deploy either the resources of the state or the power of money to achieve their ends, democratic citizenship opens up the possibility of relational power: one can act together to defend or pursue mutual interests. To be effective, that is, for association to generate power, it demands discipline and loyalty (or what theologians call faithfulness). Faithfulness is vital for developing any kind of common life. Without it, trust cannot develop, promises are broken, commitments are not kept and so the possibility of long-term reciprocal relations is dissolved. Such faithful relations are the kind that can hold in check the over-concentration of either economic or political power and the monopolisation of resources by a narrow range of interests. Where social media aid and build up this kind of faithful relationship they are a vital adjunct to political action. Where they don’t they are anti-democratic, contribute to our depoliticisation, and thereby pave the way for oppression.
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