The Californian Ideology

2025-06-28T09:20:16Z

79.26.6.71: /* See also */

{{Short description|1995 essay on media theory and Silicon Valley politics}}
"'''The Californian Ideology'''" is a 1995 essay by English media theorists [[Richard Barbrook]] and [[Andy Cameron (interactive artist)|Andy Cameron]] of the [[University of Westminster]]. Barbrook calls it a "critique of dotcom neoliberalism".<ref name="Barbrook 2007">Barbrook 2007, [http://www.imaginaryfutures.net/other-works Imaginary Futures: Other Works].</ref> In the essay, Barbrook and Cameron argue that the rise of networking technologies in [[Silicon Valley]] in the 1990s was linked to American [[neoliberalism]] and a paradoxical hybridization of beliefs from the political left and right in the form of hopeful [[technological determinism]].

The essay was published in [[Mute (magazine)|''Mute'']] magazine<ref name="Barbrook, Cameron 1995">The Californian Ideology, Barbrook, Cameron, 1995-09, Mute Vol 1 #3 CODE, {{ISSN|1356-7748}}, Mute, London, http://www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/californian-ideology</ref> in 1995 and later appeared on the ''[[nettime]]'' Internet mailing list. A revised version was published in ''Science as Culture'' in 1996. The essay has since been further revised and translated.<ref name="Barbrook 2007" />

[[Andrew Leonard]] of ''[[Salon (website)|Salon]]'' called the essay "one of the most penetrating critiques of [[neo-conservative]] digital hypesterism yet published".<ref name="leonard19990910">{{Citation
| last = Leonard
| first = Andrew
| title = The Cybercommunist Manifesto
| work = [[Salon.com]]
| date = 1999-09-10| url = http://www.salon.com/1999/09/10/cybercommunism/
| accessdate = 2012-11-01}}</ref> In contrast, ''[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]'' magazine publisher [[Louis Rossetto]] wrote that the essay showed "profound ignorance of economics".<ref name=":0" />

==Critique==
{{quote box|width=26%|align=right|quote="This new faith has emerged from a bizarre fusion of the cultural bohemianism of San Francisco with the hi-tech industries of Silicon Valley...the Californian Ideology promiscuously combines the free-wheeling spirit of the hippies and the entrepreneurial zeal of the yuppies."|source=Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron<ref>Barbrook & Cameron, [http://www.imaginaryfutures.net/2007/04/17/the-californian-ideology-2/ Revised SaC Version]; Borsook 2000, p. 173</ref>}}

During the 1990s, members of the [[digerati|entrepreneurial class]] in the [[information technology]] industry in [[Silicon Valley]] vocally promoted an ideology that combined the ideas of [[Marshall McLuhan]] with elements of radical [[individualism]], [[libertarianism]], and neoliberal economics, using publications like ''[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]'' magazine to promulgate their ideas. This ideology mixed [[New Left]] and [[New Right]] beliefs based on their shared interest in [[anti-statism]], the [[counterculture of the 1960s]], and [[techno-utopianism]].<ref>Ouellet 2010; May 2002</ref>

Proponents believed that in a [[post-industrial society|post-industrial]], [[post-capitalism|post-capitalist]], [[Knowledge economy|knowledge-based economy]], the exploitation of information and knowledge would drive growth and wealth creation while diminishing the older power structures of the state in favor of connected individuals in [[virtual communities]].<ref>May 2002</ref>

Critics contend that the Californian Ideology strengthens corporations' power over the individual, increases social stratification, and is distinctly [[Americentric]]. Barbrook argues that members of the [[digerati]] who adhere to the Californian Ideology embrace a form of [[reactionary modernism]]. According to him, "American neo-liberalism seems to have successfully achieved the contradictory aims of reactionary modernism: economic progress and social immobility. Because the long-term goal of liberating everyone will never be reached, the short-term rule of the digerati can last forever."<ref name="Barbrook 1999">Barbrook 1999</ref>

==Influences==
Sociologist Thomas Streeter of the University of Vermont has said that the Californian Ideology appeared as part of a pattern of Romantic individualism with [[Stewart Brand]] as a key influence.<ref>Turner 2006, p. 285</ref> [[Adam Curtis]] connects the Californian Ideology's origins to [[Ayn Rand]]'s philosophy of [[Objectivism]].<ref name="Curtis">Curtis 2011</ref>

==Reception==
While generally agreeing with Barbrook and Cameron's central thesis, David Hudson of ''Rewired'' took issue with their portrayal of ''Wired'' magazine's position as representative of every viewpoint in the industry. "What Barbrook is saying between the lines is that the people with their hands on the reins of power in all of the wired world...are guided by an utterly skewed philosophical construct." Hudson maintained that there were a multitude of different ideologies at work.<ref>Hudson 1996</ref>

Andrew Leonard of ''[[Salon (website)|Salon]]'' called the essay "a lucid lambasting of right-wing libertarian digerati domination of the Internet" and "one of the most penetrating critiques of neo-conservative digital hypesterism yet published". Leonard also noted what he called former ''Wired'' editor and publisher [[Louis Rossetto]]'s "vitriolic" response.<ref name="leonard19990910" />

Rossetto's rebuttal, also published in ''[[Mute (magazine)|Mute]]'', criticized the essay as showing "profound ignorance of economics". He also criticized the essay's suggestion that "a uniquely European (but not even vaguely defined) mixed economy solution" would be better for the internet, arguing that Europe's technological development was hampered by "huge plutocratic organizations like Siemens and Philips [that conspire] with bungling bureaucracies to hoover up taxes collected by local and Euro-wide state institutions and shovel them into mammoth technology projects which have proven to be, almost without exception, disasters" and by "High European taxes which have restricted spending on technology and hence retarded its development".<ref name=":0">{{Citation |last = Rossetto |first = Louis |authorlink=Louis Rossetto|title = Response to the Californian Ideology |date = 1996 |url = http://www.wmin.ac.uk/media/HRC/ci/calif2.html |url-status = bot: unknown |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/19970614205217/http://www.wmin.ac.uk/media/HRC/ci/calif2.html |archivedate = 1997-06-14
}}</ref>

Gary Kamiya, also of ''Salon'', found the essay's main points valid, but, like Rossetto, attacked Barbrook's and Cameron's "ludicrous academic-Marxist claim that high-tech libertarianism somehow represents a recrudescence of racism."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kamiya |first=Gary |date=January 20, 1997 |title=Smashing the state |url=https://www.salon.com/1997/01/20/state970120/ |website=Salon}}</ref>

Architecture historian [[Kazys Varnelis (historian)|Kazys Varnelis]] of Columbia University found that in spite of the privatization the Californian Ideology advocates, Silicon Valley's and California's economic growth was "made possible only due to exploitation of the immigrant poor and defense funding...government subsidies for corporations and exploitation of non-citizen poor: a model for future administrations."<ref>Varnelis 2009</ref>

In the 2011 documentary ''[[All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (TV series)|All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace]]'', Curtis concludes that the Californian Ideology failed to live up to its claims:

{{quote|The original promise of the Californian Ideology, was that the computers would liberate us from all the old forms of political control, and we would become [[Randian hero]]es, in control of our own destiny. Instead, today, we feel the opposite—that we are helpless components in a global system—a system that is controlled by a rigid logic that we are powerless to challenge or to change.<ref name="Curtis"/>}}In 2015, ''[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]'' wrote, "Denounced as the work of 'looney lefties' by Silicon Valley's boosters when it first appeared, The Californian Ideology has since been vindicated by the corporate take-over of the Net and [[PRISM|the exposure of the NSA's mass surveillance programmes]]."<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Sterling |first=Bruce |date=2015-10-24 |title="The California Ideology" after twenty years |language=en-US |magazine=Wired |url=https://www.wired.com/beyond-the-beyond/2015/10/the-california-ideology-after-twenty-years/ |access-date=2023-07-25 |issn=1059-1028}}</ref>

In 2022, Hasmet M. Uluorta and Lawrence Quill wrote, "The recent tech-lash, concerns over the gig-economy, and the dubious imperatives of datamining, require us to reconsider the prospects for open societies that rely upon platforms as we enter the next phase of the Californian Ideology."<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Uluorta |first1=Hasmet M. |last2=Quill |first2=Lawrence |date=2022-11-01 |chapter=The Californian Ideology Revisited |title= Digital Platforms and Algorithmic Subjectivities |editor1=Emiliana Armano |editor2=Marco Briziarelli |editor3=Elisabetta Risi |publisher=University of Westminster Press |pages=21–31 |language=en |doi=10.16997/book54.b|doi-access=free |isbn=978-1-914386-08-4 }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Paulina Borsook]], ''Cyberselfish'' (2000)
* [[Carmen Hermosillo]]
* [[Corporatocracy]]
* [[Curtis Yarvin]]
* [[Cyber-utopianism]]
* [[Dark Enlightenment]]
* [[Dot-com company]]
* [[Commodity fetishism#Intellectual property|Intellectual property]]
* [[Libertarian transhumanism]]
* [[Surveillance capitalism]]
* [[Technocracy]]
* [[Technocapitalism]]
* [[Technolibertarianism]]
* [[TESCREAL]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|30em}}

==References==
* Barbrook, Richard. Andy Cameron. (1996) [1995] "[http://www.imaginaryfutures.net/2007/04/17/the-californian-ideology-2 The Californian Ideology]". ''Science as Culture'' 6.1 (1996): 44–72.
* Barbrook, Richard. Andy Cameron (1995) [http://www.imaginaryfutures.net/2007/04/15/basic-banalities-by-richard-barbrook-and-andy-cameron/ Basic Banalities].
* {{cite web |last=Barbrook |first=Richard |date=May 15, 1996 |url=http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=32 |title=Global Algorithm 1.5: Hypermedia Freedom |work=[[CTheory]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060211181500/http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=32 |archive-date=February 11, 2006 |url-status=dead}}
* [[Richard Barbrook|Barbrook, Richard]]. (2000) [1999]. "[http://www.imaginaryfutures.net/2007/04/17/cyber-communism-how-the-americans-are-superseding-capitalism-in-cyberspace/ Cyber-Communism: How The Americans Are Superseding Capitalism In Cyberspace]". ''Science as Culture''. '''9''' (1), 5-40.
* {{cite book | first = Richard | last = Barbrook | year = 2006 | title = The Class of the New | edition = paperback | publisher = OpenMute | location = London | isbn = 0-9550664-7-6 | url = http://www.theclassofthenew.net}}.
* [[Paulina Borsook|Borsook, Paulina]]. (2000). ''Cyberselfish: A Critical Romp Through the Terribly Libertarian Culture of High Tech''. PublicAffairs. {{ISBN|1-891620-78-9}}.
* Curtis, Adam (2011). "Love and Power". ''[[All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (television documentary series)|All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace]]''. BBC.
* Hudson, David. (June 24, 1996). "[https://web.archive.org/web/20030817120954/http://www.rewired.com/96/0624.html The Other Californians]". ''Rewired: Journal of a Strained Net''.
* Kamiya, Gary. (January 20, 1997). "[https://web.archive.org/web/20110604140808/http://www.salon.com/jan97/state970120.html Smashing the state: The strange rise of libertarianism]". ''Salon.com''.
* Leonard, Andrew. (September 10, 1999). "[http://www.salon.com/1999/09/10/cybercommunism/ The Cybercommunist Manifesto]". ''Salon.com''.
* May, Christopher. (2002). ''The Information Society: A Sceptical View''. Wiley-Blackwell. {{ISBN|0745626858}}.
* Ouellet, Maxime. (2010). "Cybernetic capitalism and the global information society: From the global panopticon to a 'brand' new world". In Jacqueline Best and Matthew Paterson, ''Cultural Political Economy''. '''10'''. Taylor & Francis. {{ISBN|0-415-48932-6}}.
* Rossetto, Louis. (1996). "[http://www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/to-mutoids-re-californian-ideology 19th Century Nostrums are not Solutions to 21st Century Problems]". ''Mute''. '''1''' (4).
* Streeter, Thomas. (1999). [http://www.uvm.edu/~tstreete/romantic_chasm.html 'That Deep Romantic Chasm': Libertarianism, Neoliberalism, and the Computer Culture]. In Andrew Calabrese and Jean-Claude Burgelman, eds., ''Communication, Citizenship, and Social Policy: Re-Thinking the Limits of the Welfare State''. Rowman & Littlefield, 49–64.
* Turner, Fred. (2006). ''From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism''. University Of Chicago Press. {{ISBN|0-226-81741-5}}.
* Varnelis, Kazys. (2009). "[http://varnelis.net/blog/complexity_and_contradiction_in_infrastructure Complexity and Contradiction in Infrastructure] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170409125945/http://varnelis.net/blog/complexity_and_contradiction_in_infrastructure |date=2017-04-09 }}". Ph.D. Lecture Series. Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.

==Further reading==
* Barbrook, Richard. (2007). ''Imaginary Futures: From Thinking Machines to the Global Village''. Pluto. {{ISBN|0-7453-2660-9}}.
* [[Esther Dyson|Dyson, Esther]]. [[George Gilder]], [[George Keyworth]], [[Alvin Toffler]]. (1994). "[http://www.pff.org/issues-pubs/futureinsights/fi1.2magnacarta.html Cyberspace and the American Dream: A Magna Carta for the Knowledge Age]". ''Future Insight''. [[Progress & Freedom Foundation]].
* [[Terry Flew|Flew, Terry]]. (2002). "[http://eprints.qut.edu.au/255/1/Flew_newEmpirics.pdf The 'New Empirics' in Internet Studies and Comparative Internet Policy]". In Fibreculture Conference, 5–8 December, 5–8 December. Melbourne.
* Gere, Charlie. (2002). ''Digital Culture''. Reaktion Books. {{ISBN|1861891431}}.
* Halberstadt, Mitchell. (January 20, 1997). "[https://web.archive.org/web/20030821084809/http://www.rewired.com/97/0120.html Beyond California]". ''Rewired: Journal of a Strained Net''.
* Hudson, David. (1997). ''Rewired''. Macmillan Technical Pub. {{ISBN|1-57870-003-5}}.
* [[Geert Lovink|Lovink, Geert]]. (2009) [2002]. ''Dynamics of Critical Internet Culture (1994-2001)''. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures. {{ISBN|978-90-78146-07-0}}.
* Pearce, Celia. (1996). [http://www.imaginaryfutures.net/2007/04/21/an-insiders-view-on-the-californian-ideology/ The California Ideology: An Insider's View]. ''Mute''. '''1''' (4).

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://www.hrc.wmin.ac.uk/theory-californianideology.html The Californian Ideology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061109180733/http://www.hrc.wmin.ac.uk/theory-californianideology.html |date=2006-11-09 }} at the Hypermedia Research Centre
* [http://www.imaginaryfutures.net/2007/04/17/the-californian-ideology-2/ The Californian Ideology] revised SaC version

{{DEFAULTSORT:Californian Ideology}}
[[Category:Ideologies]]
[[Category:California culture]]
[[Category:Computing culture]]
[[Category:Technological utopianism]]
[[Category:Controversies within libertarianism]]
[[Category:Criticisms of economics]]
[[Category:1995 essays]]
[[Category:Transhumanism]]

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The Californian Ideology