Chris Anderson on the loss of meaning in words that quantify things in open systems. In other words, think about how the term "most Americans" has some meaning, while the term "most writers" is becoming fuzzy. Loosely similar today, Jarvis on the myth of the creative class.
I dunno - this sounds like an attempt to evade politics to me. I mean, I get the idea of the impossible multiplicity of things, but how is it wrong to say 'the majority of people online are moving towards American culture' or, more to the point, 'most tech bloggers are affluent white people'. Seems sketchy to me and smacks of white privilege. It's like a simultaneous attempt to, on the one hand, acknowledge the inherently provisional nature of all identity categories, but on the other, a refusal to deal with the political ramifications of that process.
posted by Nav at 3:41 PM on August 7, 2008 
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