A rchive Date
[ 22-05-2005 ]
Category
[ Mindworks ]
sub-Categoy
[ Narratives ]
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[At your fingertips ......
Flash Forward
Notlimah Hsineved 09/02/2019
The WWW or the internet, like the introduction of moveable-type and the Guttenberg press, is a significant social and technological development.
The WWW/Net, to date, is a ubiquitous and indispensable global communication tool. It's ubiquity contributes immensely to the broadening definitions of cultural and political boundaries. It provides the means through which billions of global citizens communicate and interact, relatively, free of localised traditions, social or political constraints.
To appreciate World Wide Web unbounded potential require that we learn to discern and understand the internet's ability to both empower those who feel disenfranchised (or without voice) in the many social and political choices and decisions that impact their lives daily..
Simultaneously, the ubiquitousness of the World Wide Web and its underpinning networked infrastructure, the Internet holds, and demonstrates the ability of governments and organisations to constrict or remove the safeguards that liberal democracies previously enshrined in constitutions and Laws. The Public and Private Spheres of civil societies are in flux
Historically, the invention of the printing press was revolutionary on several levels. Technologically and socially, its invention revolutionised the means of social communication and discourse. Guttenberg's invention also represents the means by which the aristocracy of the European Reformation period managed to snatch away the political status and power enjoyed by both the Church - particularly the Catholic Church - and Royalty. It was out of this schism that the European Enlightenment period evolved
Previously assumed notions about the divine rights of kings (based on the infallibility of the Church and its Teachings) were keys to the social and political power structures. These, existing in a symbiotic relationship between the Royalty and the Church) were thrown wide open to public criticism and questioning.
Consequently, the Church and its servants who had trained and conditioned citizens and its adherents to accept its teachings and authority as being divinely inspired, derived and enshrined in the Church’s Holiest of Holy Books - the Bible, had to confront and address the forces of public dissent, objection or rejection of its moral authority.
In short, The State (social and political) was thrown into upheavasl as a result of the printing press' invention and its widespread adoption and adaptation.
The Catholic Church eventually embraced the ensuing reformation as a necessary step in its growth; but steadfastly insisted that any new translation of the Scriptures be done "from the original sources", i.e, the Ancient Aramaic Scriptures of Eastern Christianity.
Educated or knowledgeable, Christians such as Luther and Tyndale knew that Aramaic was the language of the pre-christians; and as such, they used the same literary sources to build and develop their opposition to the Church as it sought to blunt the thrusts of Reformers and Protestant Reformers.
And so, in this sense, the European Reformation period is representative of the political battles waged to win the hearts and minds, not just that of the ruling classes but all citizens. As a consequence, many of the eventual outcomes of that period pivot on the introduction of the printing press which served to coalesce the collective social consciousness that had previously been nurtured through the authority of The Church. An authority that only The State provides in its 'collective' interests. .
Though often shepherded like lambs or sheep, the populace eventually responds like lions when opportunity allows for them to stand up and be counted.]
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