..as the "transdimensional tear" takes place in Watchmen. If memory serves, he samples dozens of TV stations to update his investment portfolio in real-time.
Interesting thing would be see how the patterns change as more and more people became aware of the sampling.
First, the reason stupid attacks like the one Bush made are feasible is that the *vast* majority of Americans, even those with access, have no real idea about the origin, operation, culture and communities that are its constituent elements. Their perceptions are based on either an AOL-astigmatism or a perverse hyper-marketed "Unleash Your Earning Income with Spam!" outlook. The natural results are good old-fashioned fear of the unknown and misrepresentation.
Second, the issues that Katz considers most crucial are *far* from what the average voter considers to be important: am I paying less taxes, am I better off, am I going to go broke taking care of my ailing parents? This doesn't mean the issues he raised are not important, but they don't have the traction of prescription drugs and social security.
It's nothing new for politicians to lump problems together in a way that makes it easy to demagogue but difficult to solve. We can remove the politicians' crutch here by eliminating the FUD and focusing on the benefits of universal access.
What's the matter, are we afraid to take Mr. Kurtz down the river? Maybe it's too fun here in the darkness...
I think part of the phenomenon being discussed here has to do with the fact that the technology itself has modified the way that people in the more industrialized cultures communicate with one another.
The way we work, the way we socialize, the way we are organized has changed fairly rapidly when compared to past social changes. This is a value-free assessment; not that the technology is bad, just changing the way we as a culture share information.
One of the changes has to do with a set of shared references we use socially, a set of common reference points. When the culture was more local and regional, these were communicated verbally, person-to-person. If the most common way to communicate is through the electronic media, and the underlying principle of the people producing the media is to make $$ by satisfying cultural "needs," the result will be the sorts of over-communiated Masterpiece Tragedies we're seeing today.
Slashdot Mirror
..as the "transdimensional tear" takes place in Watchmen . If memory serves, he samples dozens of TV stations to update his investment portfolio in real-time.
Interesting thing would be see how the patterns change as more and more people became aware of the sampling.
First, the reason stupid attacks like the one Bush made are feasible is that the *vast* majority of Americans, even those with access, have no real idea about the origin, operation, culture and communities that are its constituent elements. Their perceptions are based on either an AOL-astigmatism or a perverse hyper-marketed "Unleash Your Earning Income with Spam!" outlook. The natural results are good old-fashioned fear of the unknown and misrepresentation.
Second, the issues that Katz considers most crucial are *far* from what the average voter considers to be important: am I paying less taxes, am I better off, am I going to go broke taking care of my ailing parents? This doesn't mean the issues he raised are not important, but they don't have the traction of prescription drugs and social security.
It's nothing new for politicians to lump problems together in a way that makes it easy to demagogue but difficult to solve. We can remove the politicians' crutch here by eliminating the FUD and focusing on the benefits of universal access.
What's the matter, are we afraid to take Mr. Kurtz down the river? Maybe it's too fun here in the darkness...
I think part of the phenomenon being discussed here has to do with the fact that the technology itself has modified the way that people in the more industrialized cultures communicate with one another.
The way we work, the way we socialize, the way we are organized has changed fairly rapidly when compared to past social changes. This is a value-free assessment; not that the technology is bad, just changing the way we as a culture share information.
One of the changes has to do with a set of shared references we use socially, a set of common reference points. When the culture was more local and regional, these were communicated verbally, person-to-person. If the most common way to communicate is through the electronic media, and the underlying principle of the people producing the media is to make $$ by satisfying cultural "needs," the result will be the sorts of over-communiated Masterpiece Tragedies we're seeing today.
Plus they distract us from more important things.