NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/rec/arts/books/23069

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-22 | 1.8 KB

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From: [e-mail] (Mike Morris)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Morally good hypertext
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 22 Dec 92 22:19:48 GMT
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Organization: University of Waterloo
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                                      Tuesday, the 22nd of December, 1992

Jack, I wasn't quite sure how I should be reading you, but you
said:
                                                     the ruling elite can
  lie in their teeth for years on end and if it's politically inconvenient
  will *never* be called on it (some may recall a certain retired actor at
  this point).

See, I think the problem is every Joe on the planet *could* catch
Reagan out on most of what the man said. I think the facts and figures
were there, were instantly available to most of us most of the time (if
we didn't happen already to know them) to contradict nearly all of Reagan's
many, many howlers. And often the contradictory facts were available
right from those transnational communications corporations who supposedly
had an interest in making the man look good. The problem is not that
anyone was keeping facts from anybody---the problem is that *facts
simply didn't matter*. He looked good, kind of grandfatherly, and that's
all that anyone really cared about. That is what's so scary. I don't
think those corporations have the slightest interest in keeping good
information retrieval out of the hands of anyone. That's because the
information retrieval doesn't really matter.

                Mike Morris
         ([e-mail])