OCTOBER * NOVEMBER 1997
The ABCDE Minded in the
Electric Universe
Free Speech & Technology
A Raven Forum
Kathleen Alcala
Okay. Here's a quote from The Silver Cloud Cafe by Alfredo Vea:
"Is speech free if we are allowed to say what we want?" Zeferino thought for a moment before answering. "If there is a government or church that wishes to preserve itself from criticism, it can do one of two things, Senor Bogomil. It can either limit speech directly, or it can limit the people's ability to speak."
Anatoly was grinning now. He knew he had a live one. "So," said Anatoly. " a populace that is losing more and more of its literacy and its vocabulary with each generation..."
"Can speak freely...," interjected the lawyer, "because it has less to say and, therefore, presents less danger."
"Yes," said Anotoly, speaking more to himself now. "Yes. Words are the pockets that ideas go into. And you have to think better and better thoughts to be truly free."
Phoebe Bosche
Good quote. But reading latest writings on literacy, one could argue against the case for literacy (reading) as opposed to thought processes/thinking in the ways pre-literate peoples thought. And what does it mean to "think better and better thoughts"? More rational? Linear, in the Western way? More legalistic, certainly, and the can of worms that has brought humanity. When we increasing use shades and shades of grey/for meanings/explanations, is the brain getting more and more developed?
Matt Briggs
Thanks for passing along the quote.
I guess this line of argument makes me sort of nervous. It's a sort of standard curmudgeon line-the kids today are degraded from their former linguistic purity by alien forces-by the dirty French language brought over by the Normans, by the dirty hordes of Eastern European or Irish immigrants, by the wash of dirty Asian hordes, and now the enemy is technology (first radio, TV and recorded music and now computers).
I don't believe technology actually degrades the thought or even the power of individuals to speak. One of the things I like about George Orwell's "Politics and The English Language" is that he recognizes that thought goes on regardless of language, but that the power to express yourself in language depends on language. And I agree that a loss in vocabulary, a shift to an oral/digital literacy undermines print culture, but I don't think it lessens what people have to say. They'll still think and they'll still find a way to say to say what they think.
However, as technology erodes traditional literacy, what is replacing it? Technology is business and business is advertising. The role of advertising is to sell as little product as possible for as much money as possible. The magical mantra of Coke is it seems to me to be perfect advertising because it is selling absolutely nothing for a dollar a gallon.
I also believe people are thinking less along the lines of who they are politically and more along the lines of what kind of stuff can they buy; that is they are more concerned with their desire to drive a Lexus or Range Rover and park it in a double car garage than with the long-term sustainability of the culture, with the length of their work week, and their personal relationship to the culture. The most political act most people make, I think, is whether they drink Coke or Pepsi.
And nothing I've experienced in the oral/digital (I mean electric because the alphabet is a digital technology) world really matches the sustained thought and intimacy of a book. Thomas Carlyle has been dead for a long time but he still seems more personal to me than Woodie Guthrie (I know some old folkies would probably pull off my head with a banjo string, but I'll have to admit that Mr. Guthrie never did much for me.)
(Also in an article I read about traditional music in the Simthsonian, I think in an article about The Living Museum of the Air, about a guy who collected thousands of 78s from the teen through 40s of traditional music that has since died off, they mentioned that mass media is like nerve gas on indigenous cultures--it wipes out traditional musicians. But I think what characterizes mass media is the advertising, not really the content or even the format of TV/movies/recordings).
There is a little truth in some of the technology hype (hence it has been able to dupe the business world so completely)... a web site, for instance, actually does provide instant, word wide publication with a bare minimum of technical skill--all you need is a wordprocessor, a modem, and space on a web server.
I think it's a struggle to see past the advertising to what are actual issues and what are actual things to think about actual ways to put these things to work. I'm not sure that our language is eroding. I just think it's changing-and business people are raking in the cash.
Kathleen Alacala
Interesting that you both saw this as a tech vs lit statement. I didn't see it that way at all. But I think I do agree that advertising is filling our heads with air, and it is easier to do that if you turn on the TV and sit in front of it than pick up a book or magazine and read it. I also agree that defining ourselves by what we purchase rather than by other standards is a problem, as in the earlier discussion on serial killers.
I don't have any illusion that there was a pre-tech age of enlightened readers. My father is the first literate person in his family. Rather, I think technology will encompass and bring in people who have until now been left out of the global think tank. Once verbal recognition by computers is better, a lot of people are going to have a lot of interesting things to say. Also a lot of boring things, as those on line do now. But there are a lot of storytelling traditions that can't be done justice by the written word.
I'm not sure what better and better thoughts are, either, except in the context of the book, which is arranged hierarchically, ie, the relationship of humans to angels. I was thinking of it in terms that, as one is able to practice putting ideas into words, one can refine the ideas. After all, learning language physically shapes the human brain, causing it to differentiate into specialized cells and form synapses. Children deprived of language in early childhood (I mean REALLY deprived, like that girl Genie) never quite catch up.
Phoebe Bosché
I personally haven't ever defined myself as what I've purchased, nor have I ever paid attention to advertising, except as an art form.
Kathleen wrote:
I don't have any illusion that there was a pre-tech age of enlightened readers.
My father is the first literate person in his family. Rather, "Enlightened Reader" isn't what I had in mind; I mean enlightenment in a spiritual pre-literate way, which may be a higher form of enlightenment than comes from reading. I say this as a bookworm. I don't know why Matt equated oral/tech, as they don't seem to connect.
I think technology will encompass and bring in people who have until now been left out of the global think tank.
Once verbal recognition by computers is better--people who have been left out of the global think tank in some ways may have superior thought processes/a relationship to reality in a much more evolved way than western thinking peoples.
better, a lot of people are going to have a lot of interesting things to say. Also a lot of boring things, as those on line do now. But there are a lot of storytelling traditions that can't be done justice by the written word.
I'm not sure what better and better thoughts are, either, except in the context of the book, which is arranged hierarchically, i.e., the relationship of humans to angels. I was thinking of it in terms that, as one is able to --how did angels get in here? Were you referring to the Bible/and it's story of creation of the Word? practice putting ideas into words, one can refine the ideas. After all, learning language physically shapes the human brain, causing it to differentiate into specialized cells and form synapses. Children deprived of language in early childhood (I mean REALLY deprived, like that girl Genie) never quite catch up.
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