Debate? Dissent?
Discussion? Oh, Don't Go There! By MICHIKO KAKUTANI http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/23/arts/23STUD.html
contains a lot of wonderful stuff -- I was struck especially with this
line:
We have to think about them now.
When groups of people can "filter out" key pieces of information, the
truth can be too weak, and results can be disastrous.
When things are complicated enough, truth is our only hope of finding
our ways to decent solutions. That means we have to find ways to keep
people from "filter(ing) out information that might undermine their
views."
Challenge, questions, and invokation of the need for force:
" the Internet, which instead of leading to a global village, has
created a multitude of self-contained tribes - niche cultures in which
like-minded people can talk to like-minded people and filter out
information that might undermine their views."
That explains a great
deal about how the optimistic, bouyant argument in Thomas L. Friedman's
The Lexus and the Olive Tree falls short -- and the optimistic,
simplistic claims for "globalization" have fallen short. Friedman and many
others didn't think enough about the barriers to communication that the
new communication technologies do not strip away.
MD728 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?14@@.f28e622/906
... MD729 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?14@@.f28e622/907
MD730 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?14@@.f28e622/908
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Counterchallenge:
MD780 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?14@@.f28e622/976
... MD783-784 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?14@@.f28e622/981
... MD84 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?14@@.f28e622/99
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Betraying Humanity By BOB HERBERT http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/28/opinion/28HERB.html
. . . ultimately the many tribes that inhabit this earth are going
to have to figure out a way to forge some workable agreements on how we
treat one another.