photocopying, fax machines, camcorders, global 
satellite signals, and the Internet. National borders 
morph into geopolitical trading blocs, and 
electronic capital flows without regard to time or 
space. Retribalism breaks out in the hot cruel wars 
of Bosnia and Rwanda, and urban gang battles, 
but also in the violent rhetoric of identity politics, 
and the cool barbed wire suburban enclaves of 
elites.

“Such transformation is, of course, a ‘disaster’ for 
a literate, specialist culture. It blurs many 
cherished attitudes and procedures. It dims the 
efficacy of the basic pedagogic techniques, and