----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Albert" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, 21 January 2000 4:56 AM Subject: ZNet Update-Commentary / Jan 21 / Norman Solomon / AOL Time Warner > > > Hello, > > As part of our January ZNet Outreach Program, here is today's ZNet > Commentary Delivery from Norman Solomon. > > --> Access the Sustainer Zine and Forums at: > http://zena.secureforum.com/zdaily/index.cfm > > --> Learn more about the Sustainer Program at > http://www.zmag.org/Commentaries/donorform.htm > > --> Join by sending a check by slow mail or cc information via an online > form, both using the information at: > http://www.zmag.org/Commentaries/how_do_you_sign_up.htm > > --> Discontinue the commentaries for January at www.zmag.org/weluser.htm > > Here then is today's ZNet Commentary...we do hope you will seriously > consider becoming a ZNet Sustainer before the end of January. > > > > > AOL TIME WARNER: CALLING THE FAITHFUL TO THEIR KNEES > By Norman Solomon > > And so, early in the year 2000, it came to pass that visions of a seamless > media web enraptured the keepers of pecuniary faith as never before. A grand > new structure, AOL Time Warner, emerged while a few men proclaimed > themselves trustees of a holy endeavor. They told the people about a > wondrous New Media world to come. > > Lo, they explained, changes of celestial magnitude were not far off. A > miraculous future, swiftly approaching, would bring cornucopias of bandwidth > and market share. A pair of prominent clerics named Steve Case and Gerald > Levin gained ascendancy. Under bright lights, how majestic they looked! > > And how they could preach! Announcing unification, they seemed to make the > media world stand still. Reporters and editors gasped. Some were fearful, > their smiles of fascination tight. Others bowed and scraped without > hesitation. > > In keeping with the dominant creeds of the era, believers in the divine > right of capital asserted that separation of corporate church and state was > an anachronism. A torch had been passed to a new veneration. Media monarchs > would rule with unabashed fervor, while taking care to help regulate mere > governments. > > The power of the new theocracy promised to be unparalleled. On Jan. 2, > 2000 -- just one week before the portentous announcement -- the chief > prelate of Time Warner alluded to transcendent horizons. Global media "will > be and is fast becoming the predominant business of the 21st century," Levin > said on CNN, "and we're in a new economic age, and what may happen, assuming > that's true, is it's more important than government. It's more important > than educational institutions and non-profits." > > He went on: "So what's going to be necessary is that we're going to need to > have these corporations redefined as instruments of public service because > they have the resources, they have the reach, they have the skill base -- > and maybe there's a new generation coming up that wants to achieve meaning > in that context and have an impact, and that may be a more efficient way to > deal with society's problems than bureaucratic governments." > The next sentence from the monied prince underscored the sovereign right of > cash: "It's going to be forced anyhow because when you have a system that is > instantly available everywhere in the world immediately, then the > old-fashioned regulatory system has to give way." > > To discuss an imposed progression of events as some kind of natural > occurrence was a convenient form of mysticism -- long popular among the > corporately pious, who were often eager to wear mantles of royalty and > divinity. Tacit beliefs deemed the accumulation of wealth to be redemptive. > Inside many temples, monetary standards gauged worth. > A little more than half a century earlier, Aldous Huxley had predicted: "The > most important Manhattan Projects of the future will be vast > government-sponsored enquiries into...the problem of making people love > their servitude." To a lot of ears, that sounded like quite an exaggeration. > > "There is, of course, no reason why the new totalitarianisms should resemble > the old," Huxley foresaw. He observed that "in an age of advanced > technology, inefficiency is the sin against the Holy Ghost. A really > efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful > executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a > population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their > servitude. To make them love it is the task assigned, in present-day > totalitarian states, to ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors and > schoolteachers. But their methods are still crude and unscientific." That > was in 1946. > > In 2000, there wasn't much crude about the methods of Steve Case, Gerald > Levin and others at the top of large corporate denominations, heralding joy > to the world via a seamless web of media. Two days after disclosure of plans > for unification, Case assured a national PBS television audience: "Nobody's > going to control anything." Seated next to him, Levin declared: "This > company is going to operate in the public interest." > > Such pledges, invariably uttered in benevolent tones, were the classic vows > of scamsters claiming to have the most significant gods on their side. In > this way a hallowed duo, Case and Levin, moved ahead to gain more billions > for themselves and maximum profits for some other incredibly wealthy people. > By happy coincidence, they insisted, the media course that would make them > richest was the same one that held the most fulfilling promise for everyone > on the planet. > > _______________________________ > A transcript with audio of Norman Solomon appearing on a panel on the > "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer," discussing the AOL - Time Warner merger, is > posted on the PBS website at: > http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/jan-june00/aol_01-10.html > __________________________________ > Norman Solomon is a syndicated columnist. His latest book is "The Habits of > Highly Deceptive Media." > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- This is the Neither public email list, open for the public and general discussion. To unsubscribe click here Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Subject=unsubscribe To subscribe click here Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Subject=subscribe For information on [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.neither.org/lists/public-list.htm For archives http://www.mail-archive.com/public-list@neither.org
