"That the Marxist Left should argue theoretically and act practically from the standpoint of the most advanced productive forces in their society, that they should develop in depth all the liberating factors imminent in these forces and use them strategically, is no academic expectation, but a political necessity."

So says Hans Enzensberger in his 1970 essay "Constituents of a Theory of the Media." This article, when it was published caused a great stir across the tumultuous personages of the early 1970's, not only because of its radical stance on Marxist idealism, but because of its call for a revolution in the media. His lengthy comments on the corruption of the press, of the bourgeoisie-owned right to free speech and on the ineffectiveness of the half-hearted revolutionary action that was taking place at the time served as one of the key influences on the performance artists of the seventies.

There are so many articles from this roiling time that deal with the emancipation of the press, and the need for an uprising using technology, that it is easy to dismiss this one as outdated and outmoded...that we are no longer in need of a media revolution. But Ensenzberger's assertion that his ideology is no academic expectation, but a political necessity rings eerily true. No, we don't need a revolution...because it's already happened. With the creation of the internet, has come Enzensberger's prophesied state of affairs where every person has access to things that even 15 year ago, you wouldn't be able to find outside the Library of Congress.

We can learn how to make things, read out of print books, watch films that are no longer in physical existence, all from our homes and offices on machines that can fit into our backpacks. We also become the initiators, the 'producers' when we search for things, and put things back onto the internet, where they can be read by anyone using it.