The miraculously convenient technology of the Internet has created an unprecedented simultaneity of moral functions. Julian Assange of WikiLeaks is like an incarnation of Shiva, the Hindu god of creation and destruction. It turns out that what was recently considered a brave new age of information was actually the first spasm in a long process of cultural realignment. We are all used to thinking of Google as though it were synonymous with the word \u201cfuture.\u201d\u009d In 50 years, people will be talking about Google the way we talk about the East India Company. We are still wobbling in the baby steps of the Internet age.<\/p>\n
As Evgeny Morozov demonstrates in \u201cThe Net Delusion,\u201d\u009d his brilliant and courageous book, the Internet\u2019s contradictions and confusions are just becoming visible through the fading mist of Internet euphoria. Morozov is interested in the Internet\u2019s political ramifications. \u201cWhat if the liberating potential of the Internet also contains the seeds of depoliticization and thus dedemocratization?\u201d\u009d he asks. The Net delusion of his title is just that. Contrary to the \u201ccyberutopians,\u201d\u009d as he calls them, who consider the Internet a powerful tool of political emancipation, Morozov convincingly argues that, in freedom\u2019s name, the Internet more often than not constricts or even abolishes freedom.<\/p>\n