alphabetic and typographic culture is the task of the present 
book. And it is today a quest which cannot but be undertaken 
in the light of new technologies which deeply affect the 
traditional operation and achieved values of alphabetic literacy 
and typographic culture.

     There is a recent work that seems to me to release me 
from the onus of mere eccentricity and novelty in the present 
study. It is The Open Society and Its Enemies  by Karl R. Popper, 
a work devoted to the study of aspects of detribalization in the 
ancient world and of retribalization in the modern world. For the 
“open society” was effected by phonetic literacy, as will shortly 
appear, and is now threatened with eradication by electric 
media, as will be discussed in the conclusion of this study. 
Needless to say, the “is,” rather than the “ought,” of all these 
developments, is alone being discussed. Diagnosis and