Proceedings of the 5th Arts & Humanities Conference, Copenhagen

EXPLOITING THE “COMMUNIST THREAT“, FOR THE PRIVATIZED INTERNET

NOEL PACKARD

Abstract:

Levine’s Surveillance Valley reports how the Internet was privatized without public debate or resistance but overlooks decades of neoliberal economic and anti-communist purging history that had chilling effects on public resistance to Internet privatization - that history gap is explored here. How did military-industrial-complex contractors, using neoliberal and Communist threat rational, incentivize Internet development, while lessening the possibility of public interference to Internet privatization? Weber’s special-skilled-occupational-status-group-theory is overlaid onto neoliberal economic and military-industrial-complex history to argue occupational-contractor-status-groups, with their monopoly access to early computer technology, fulfilled neoliberal doctrine by creating and protecting private markets for the Internet and exploited Communist threat rational to help clear the privatization path of people who might impede market plans.

Keywords: Internet, neoliberal, DARPA, Communist Threat, Cold War, national security

DOI: 10.20472/AHC.2019.005.006

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