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Gaffer Variety:
Powerful People 016:
By Willie Gaffer:
November 28, 2005:
Over time all people with power will let it slip away. They will lose control of it one way or another. That happened to the Roman Empire. It also happened to the Church and the kings when Gutenberg developed movable type printing in the Western world. At that time, information was controlled by a few and censorship was a fact of life. The Church would have done better to leave Bruno alone and burned Gutenberg. They did not, because they were too stupid to understand what he had done. Bruno, they knew, was an unrepentant heretic. He had the audacity to say what he believed about Copernicus' theories.
Gutenberg was not nearly so notorious. He only gave the power of the press to anyone who could afford to set up a printing shop. He made publishing inexpensive and easy. He also made communication reliable. We know now what the church did not. Printing was a good thing that gradually undermined the power of the church and the kings. For sure, a lot of garbage got printed, but philosophers and scientists also got a hearing. They were able to share their ideas, not just by speaking to the local people, but to the larger mass of people. They were able to extend their voice through space and time. That is why we can still read about Copernicus and his ideas. That is why we know about the horror of what was done to Bruno.
The power of the press was a great thing until recently. Now printing and all other publishing has become an expensive enterprise. Not anyone can afford to do it and all of that power that Gutenberg first released has been concentrated in the hands of a very few people. We know who they are. Most of them are based in New York. They control the media in all channels of delivery, be it newspaper, televison, or book publishing. So, censorship has again become a fact of life, whether deliberate or inadvertent. I personally do not think it is always inadvertent.
Publishing, be it print or broadcast is like any other industry. The older it gets, the larger the corporations get. The larger the corporations get, the more power is concentrated in fewer hands. With that concentration comes the natural arrogance of power. Fewer and fewer people are self righteously deciding what is good for us, what we can and cannot hear or see. New voices can be and are shut out as a matter of routine. Even libraries do it. It becomes about risk and cost rather than excellence. To get in takes enormous luck and usually, the will and perseverance of a deity. A few make it.
Guess what? Sure, the power-mongers are losing control again. The internet has overtaken them. Once again, publishing has become inexpensive and easy. Any fool can buy a computer and set up a website. For sure, there are a lot of fools out there and a lot of garbage is being published. Don't say it! I wonder about myself all of the time. However, only time can judge me or any other writer-cum-publisher. That does not mean I do not welcome input, be it positive or that damned other kind. Keep it coming.
Very many people will rant and rave about the garbage that is being disseminated over the internet. While I can agree with their criticism, I cannot agree with some of the remedies. Shutting down the internet is not a good idea. Censorship of any kind is not a good idea. Eventually, like movable type printing, the internet will prove to be a good thing, a necessary thing. Anything that takes power out of the hands of the power-mongers and puts it into the hands of the people will eventually prove to be good.
For sure, we need to protect kids. I will repeat my own theme on that. The only agencies that are trustworthy enough to filter the kids information sources are the parents. Good old Mom and Pop will have to do it. They ought to do it anyway. The government is not trustworthy. The internet provides are business people and, as such, are unreliable. You are the only agency that is reliable enough to censor your kids input.
As to the internet itself, it is not a finished product yet. That too is good. We have a great deal to learn and do about how to set it up and how to use it. It can only get better. There is much work to be done in making it available. High speed access is in its infancy. It can and must get much faster and more reliable. It can and must be made available in all areas to as many people as possible. It looks as though the internet is a tidal wave of information that can only overwhelm us. Outfits like Google and Yahoo are learning to deal with that. They too will get better. They must, because there will be competition.
In the future, the internet will prove to be as powerful a
tool for the people as the printing press was. It could even lead
to a new renaissance. I predict a massive flow and exchange of
ideas, much like what began emerging in Italy in the 14th century
and carried humankind into a new age of enlightenment. That process
culminated in the birth of democracy. If we are as lucky again,
the unstoppable exchange of ideas could restore our democracy
and even lead to worldwide democracy. It could provide the kind
of information sharing that would again spell the doom of the
power-mongers the world over. That is something to hope for. Power
to the people, always, even if most of them are rabble. I believe
even rabble can rise against tyranny when they have ideas and
hope. Ideas give hope.
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