I think the danger isn't so much the disenfranchisement of the inarticulate
and illiterate as it is the denial of their existence.
For instance the mid and late 19th century seemed to be a high water mark
for meme over matter and whose dank and fetid influence is still felt in
conservative thought. The turn of the century brought populists movements
... the forerunners of FDR's reforms and LBJ's Great Society. Note that
opponents of these movements tend to "blame the victims" ... so that govt.
programs become govt. waste. This was best brought home to me by Studs
Terkel's book on the depression ...
I see no problem with people choosing to be inarticulate or illiterate <i.e.
I've talked with lots of people whose parent's hate computers, automated
tellers, and I suppose soft drink machines ....>. I do see a problem with
technology becoming a new hurdle between the chosen and dispossessed ....
with the chosen attributing their status to "fate" rather than "chance".
Today I just signed up for a seminar on the net .... and the HTML page
REQUIRED an E-Mail address, as well as a phone, fax, and physical address.
Wonder if job applications required some sort of web presence <as in a job
application process that only allowed for HTML resumes?>. Initially this
could be justified for techie type positions, but in the long run it could
be required ... with the "chosen" hiring people to generate a web presence
... while the dispossessed merely lump it. I had a similar feeling when I
applied for jobs right out of school ... where I typed up my own resume and
then had it copied onto bond paper ... I remember feeling distinctly out of
place at some interviews where everyone was carrying around offset printed
resumes on cream colored thick stock gilt edged paper. <CIRCA '85 at the
height of dress for success...>
Sincerely,
Nate the neo-commie, bleeding-heart, mush-headed liberal .
----------
From: Tim Rhodes[SMTP:proftim@speakeasy.org]
Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 1998 5:28 PM
To: Church of Virus; meme-circus@lucifer.com
Subject: Second Class Netzizens
Is it possible that, on the Net and in e-mail, were everyone can at
least
read and write to some extent, the inarticulate are going to become
the
"illiterates" of this medium, held back from discussions and
opportunities
because they lack essential tools for functioning in this society?
Will this be a good or bad thing?
-Prof. Tim