On Tue, 14 May 2002, Nick Arnett wrote: > Thomas Friedman's column... > http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/12/opinion/12FRIE.html?ex=1022206363&ei=1&en= > bb7ddfb96e3b3f16 > > He laments the fact that the Internet is unfiltered, but doesn't suggest who > should be filtering it. Of course, if he did, his elitism would be blatant.
I don't see how you read this into the article. Never once does he say the 'net should be filtered, and he spends as much time talking about satellite TV as he does the 'net. He points out that these things make hate, like any other meme, much easier to spread. His recommendation: "It can be reversed only with education, exchanges, diplomacy, and human interaction--stuff you have to upload the old-fashioned way, one on one." What's wrong with that sentiment? Where is he advocating censorship? > I was struck by the similarity between the effect of the Internet in > Indonesia, where only 5 percent of the population is connected, and printing > in Reformation Europe, where perhaps 5 percent of the population was > literate. In both cases, the minority was able to spread information, often > misinterpretations of what was printed, to the masses quickly. And the > powers that be respond by calling for censorship, or filtering, or whatever > we're calling it this week. > > Am I mistaken, or did Friedman just call an entire country, perhaps an > entire religion, the village idiots? The only difference between him and a > corrupt pope of five hundred years ago is that Friedman's pulpit is secular, > IMO. And yet Friedman's point is that when only a tiny part of the population is literate and wired, they have enormous power to misinform the masses to promote their own secular and religious agendas...just like the pope five hundred years ago. It seems to me that Friedman is basically repeating the truism that with mass media 90 (maybe 99) percent of everything is crap. The problem is when 90+ percent of the people don't have access to the tools, learning, and experience needed to "filter" that crap out on their own. His recommendation? More learning. Nowhere in this article does he advocate censorship, unless pointing out that the Internet is full of crap in addition to the good stuff is the same as advocating censorship. Marvin Long Austin, Texas "Never flay a live Episiarch." -- Galactic Proverbs 7563:34(j)
