I’d very much like to stay on touch and would especially see some of your commentary on the democratic potential of the net.

my name is Fausto, 25 years old student living in London. I’m making an MA in Film Theory and Media studies, and happened to read Poster’s article as well whilst I was doing my research for an essay I have to hand in in two days (!) and haven’t quite advanced yet… in any case, I saw that you were unsure about the meaning of (quote)

“In its rush to ontologize freedom, the modern view of the subject hides the process of its historical construction.”

I think that Poster is saying that Modernity (simplified as a monolithic viewpoint)was concerned with giving the concept of “freedom” its firm philosophical ground, a stable, fixed, essential “subject”, more or less the cartesian ego. In order to do that, any consideration of this subject as being constructed WITHIN historical processes had to be erased, as it would be a contradiction to admit that the subject that is pre-condition for freedom is constructed once he exists in historical becoming. Or, if the ego has to exist a priori, it cannot be constructed a posteriori. Ha, how is that for an answer? Bloody confusing, that’s what it is lol

Would be cool to keep in touch, my essay is about the democratic possibilities of Internet, and question the Public Sphere with some other thinkers who smashed it to bits…

Cheers
Fausto