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[Next| Prev| Index] 2/22/96, jnorris@mcn.org, Mendonesia, Ca.,USA
HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, SKINWEAR
PROLOGUE
Cultural epiphany, most often specific and localized: Mozart, Da
Vinci, Impressionism, Paris in the 20's, Einstein etc., is an
infrequent event. Most rare of all are the paradigm shifts
wherein entire cultures are subsumed by divine inspiration: The
Early Greeks, The Children's Crusades, The Renaissance, and most
recently, the 60's.
Most of us cut our teeth on the nuclear bomb, huddled under our
desks wondering at the prospect of total annihilation. Less than
a decade later we were in an outer-space race with the Soviets
for the high ground when suddenly, looking through the bomb
sights, a profoundly affecting image was discerned: The Whole
Earth.
Finite, fragile, this image forever changed man's view of himself
and his place in the universe. Einstein's relativity unavoidably
entered the mainstream. In an instant the earth was transformed
from an infinite plain of endless resources to a fixed quanta.
Kennedy was shot. America's identity crisis worsened. We became
hyphenated minorities, disconnected sub-sets. The glue had
suddenly failed. The old forms no longer held. And then, well,
you know what happened. We know who we are.
UNIVERSAL INFORMATION SUFFRAGE
Some twenty five years ago as I was negotiating the jingle bell
rainbow that on that sunny day arched between Pacific High School
and my tree-house further out on Long Ridge, I imagined a near
future wherein access to the Library of Congress would be
electronically available if not to everyone, at least to
students, madmen and genius'.
It would be a giant blow against the conspiracy of ignorance. It
would be the birthright of every citizen, and it would be free.
Great things would happen in ways only a mind that could discount
property laws might imagine. Ah youth!
A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON OUR WAY TO THE DIGITAL FORUM
While the iconoclasts were busily exposing the great frauds of
previous generations, seeds for a new syllabus were sprouted. One
of those seeds is a giant metamorph: cyberspace.
Architecture for the mind, elegant, logical, a clear apollonian
line blazing a bright path across a darkening background of
increasing social disintegration and apparent chaos, cyberspace
was found to have peculiar and unanticipated properties, the work
of some frisky Muse no doubt.
While all the emphasis has been on control: controlling the code,
the OS, the data, the profits, the copyright, the market, and
while millions have been won, lost or stolen, the fact remains:
THE SEED NEVER EXPLAINS THE FLOWER
Or, as John Perry Barlow is so fond of saying: Man plans, God
laughs. I remember John fervently pitching the internet. EFF was
just forming and Information Superhighway was only a buzzword.
Wittingly or unwittingly, he and his cohorts propagated a forum
worthy of Athens in the fifth century B.C. Personally, I think he
knew.
The moment we go on-line we tap into a realm of eternal
perspectives quite independent of the information being served,
perspectives we instantly recognize and embrace. I see this in
children all the time. This is the quality that makes cyberspace
immune to the casual barbarism of modern day political and
commercial enterprise. It is subject to no other law than the
free exchange of ideas. It cannot be controlled, owned or
dominated. Just ask Bill Gates.
What quality informs this perspective to make it eternal? I would
have to say it is because the proportions given are on a human
scale, a scale where we are never too small or too big or in any
way unsuited to our purpose, where skinwear is logically our
chief concern and standard.
No longer passive consumers we become active participants in a
process that celebrates the most noble of man's attributes, the
conscious mind. We are allowed to implement our humanity, to
experience the joy of life found expression, to make art out of
mud.
The lesson book we cannot escape from is human experience.
Nothing can be so beautiful and so significant as the real. The
internet is neither symbolic nor decorative; direct, refreshing,
it is more kin to the absolute democracy of Ancient Greece than
to it's anemic cousin that we live under today. Is representative
democracy beginning to sound like an oxymoron to you too?
The internet recasts us all in a venue where human beings are
seen to be chiefly alike and not irretrievably different and
isolated. It is for lovers of a human world. Instead of
emphasizing special characteristics that distinguish us one from
another, it binds us together in the qualities shared by all
mankind.
ABSOLUTE DEMOCRACY
This unbridled intercourse on the internet has, as is to be
expected, brought out reactionaries of every stripe, however,
today we will concentrate on the zebras, those who see things
only in black and white. These artless patrons of fear would
abridge our first amendment rights, they would excise our
genitals, they would turn our children against us. Their raw
material is ignorance, their allegiance is to power. They care
nothing about a well furnished mind. They are content with
double-wide consciousness, Monkey Weird furniture, and TV. If
there are any books they are abridged editions from the editors
of Readers Digest and are, for the most part, unread. It's a
sobering thought when you realize the sheer momentum ignorance
has going for it. Luckily they can be out-maneuvered.
Is cyberspace the treacle to their poison? One has only to look
at the fall of the Iron Curtain to recognize that the computer is
mightier than the sword. In their case it was a question of fax
machines! Isn't it ironic that during the same week our
Intelligence community failed to forecast the collapse of the
Soviet Empire, they did know what Pee Wee Herman was doing in a
XXXX rated theatre on the Florida panhandle in the off-season.
Perfect.
Is absolute democracy seditious? Hardly. Homer's hero cried for
more light, even if it were but light to die in. A slave is he
who cannot speak his thought. Thoughts and ideas are the fair and
immortal children of the mind. Do they think they can stop us
now?
The Decency Act is a feeble Trojan horse that by all rights
should be put out to pasture once and for all. Its proponents
refuse to see that the Sacred Monster has already eaten their
young and is poised to swallow them too.
Take heart. Rejoice in life. Unless mankind is alien to you, the
world is a beautiful and delightful place to live in. At last the
Hearth and the Quest have been joined! Have fun. Be vigilant.
EPILOGUE
A nineteenth century English Lord took it into his head to visit
America and see for himself the great wild west. He took passage
on a ship bound for New Orleans and then made it up the
Mississippi to St. Louis where he turned left and headed west for
his friend's ranch in Colorado.
Arriving at the ranch he went up to one of the hands and
inquired: Is your master at home?
The grisly cowboy smiled and, looking him square in the eye,
calmly informed him: The son-of-a-bitch ain't been born yet.
John Norris for Pacific High Foundation
e-mail: jnorris@mcn.org jnorris@busybox.com