predictable, then, that any new means of moving information 
will alter any power structure whatever. So long as the new 
means is everywhere available at the same time, there is a 
possibility that the structure may be changed without 
breakdown. Where there are great discrepancies in speeds of 
movement, as between air and road travel or between 
telephone and typewriter, serious conflicts occur within 
organizations. The metropolis of our time has become a test 
case for such discrepancies. If homogeneity of speeds were 
total, there would be no rebellion and no breakdown. With print, 
political unity via homogeneity became feasible for the first 
time. In ancient Rome, however, there was only the light paper 
manuscript to pierce the opacity, or to reduce the 
discontinuity, of the tribal villages; and when the paper supplies 
failed, the roads were vacated, as they were in our own age 
during gas-rationing. Thus the old city-state returned, and