25/9/2008
By Michael Goodspeed
Thunderbolts.info
"The Internet is both the most
useful and destructive communication tool in world history.
This still infantine technology can connect a Sufi in Darfur
with a personal trainer in Santa Cruz, CA. We are all linked by
mechanical conduits
and
invisible circuits, a seemingly living matrix whose every fabric
was woven by the collective human consciousness. Nothing "lives"
in this matrix that a human mind didn't invent. Ergo, it is no
overstatement when the World Wide Web consortium describes the
WWW as nothing less than "the embodiment of human knowledge."
This essay is being published and distributed on this "web," the
most voluminous database of independent, uncensored, worthwhile
information in human history. Make no mistake, if not for this
invention, our species might be in immediate and irredeemable
peril. Without the web, the handful of media conglomerations
that have swallowed up all of the major TV, radio, and print
outlets, could promulgate misinformation with little or no hope
of correction. In the pre-Internet age, proponents of unpopular
or "fringe" thought systems were almost exclusively relegated to
public access television and short-wave radio. Today, anyone
with a web-cam and an opinion can freely broadcast his views
around the globe, with a nearly unlimited potential audience.
This unprecedented means to spread unfettered information and
viewpoints has already affected stupendous real world changes.
In the last year, the Presidential campaign of a relatively
obscure figure, Congressman Dr. Ron Paul, achieved a groundswell
of support based on and driven by Internet communications.
Indeed, a whole new medium of communication - "blogging" - has
arisen as a serious competitor of newspapers and magazines, even
(in the minds of some) jeopardizing the commercial viability of
print publications.
But human beings are intrinsically flawed, so nothing human
consciousness has created has ever been perfect. The Internet is
no exception. Our ugliness, weakness, ignorance and debasement
burst forth coincident with our beauty, intelligence, power and
grace. I'd like to believe that the latter human qualities
predominate our culture, including the infinite cyber-maze that
is the WWW, but sadly, they do not. I don't know precisely how
many Americans are members of what might be called the "lowest
common denominator," but I do know this denominator tends to
make the most noise.
When Andy Warhol observed, "Everybody is famous for fifteen
minutes," he surely presaged this era of YouTube kings and
queens, these MySpace gods and goddesses, a million faces and
voices all competing for a fleeting moment of attention. An
endless quest for "love" in the form of hit counts and five-star
ratings. On the plus side, collective and individual narcissism
can sometimes provide incentive for real creative brilliance --
many artistic and intellectual geniuses had immature or
downright schizophrenic motives. But everywhere in cyberspace,
we see the signs that the "inmates are running the asylum." If
discourse, dialog, circumspection, and humility are the tools of
the enlightened, then shouting, bleating, ignorance and
arrogance are the tools of the wretched."
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