A rchive Date
[ 22-10-2004 ]
Category
[ Mindworks ]
sub-Categoy
[ Narratives ]
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[Introduction
Notlimah Hsineved 09/02/2019
Cogito, ergo sum (I am thinking, therefore I exist) René Descartes
This began as a project to provide me with quick and easy access to resources on my local network. It was never meant to become another part of the internet. It was started back when being 'Online' involved a 56Kps modem with a dial-up connection. So, quick and easy access to reference resources meant, to me, locally stored and shared for later use. Always-on, High-speed networks connections and the WWW were still in the realm of science fiction. Social media involved BBS not Facebook; and online anonymity did not evoke images of hacktivists, such as Anonymous. And, information gathering online meant having to scroll through numerous screens as you read a lot text-based pages.
Those were the 'good ole days'. The focus on 'eyeball-clicks' was still in the distant future of online-surfing.
Meanwhile, in the process of building and developing my internal network, my project evolved and has taken on a life of its own. So much so that just its maintenance consumes considerable amounts of my time.
The site's content was not originally intended to be dynamic in structure. In addition, to be clear, the intent was (and is) the development of a local digital library resource environment. That has been driven, largely, by an annoyance that developed through the current and persistent and intrusive reliance on graphic-driven content of the current internet model. A focus that is driven, primarily, by the commercial need to monitise online-content.
In my view, unless directed related to a subject matter search, it's all distractions. Shiny objects to entice the weak-willed netizens.And so, the contents herein may be of interest only to those who prefer or enjoy reading..
Currently, the internet (or the World Wide Web) can be seen as being representative of forum wherein issues of pertinence or relevance can be situated and discussed along any point of the social or political spectrums. Perception, it appears, is everything, to everyone.
The explosive growth of the World Wide Web is, in some respects, akin to having access cable television or tuning in to satellite tv channels. All digital; and In the end, it boils down to one essential component: global communication at your fingertips, commercial vested-interests aside.
The explosive and continued growth of the internet (WWW) is analogous to the advent of the Guttenberg printing press in the 15th century (1436) by Johann Gutenberg.
The invention of moveable type and the printing press represent major developments in writing, recording and distribution of cultural literature. Its widespread adoption and uses contributed to the eventual decline not, yet, the demise of oral traditions. This method of 'mass' dissemination of information has altered all succeeding societies or cultures since its invention.
Terms and concepts such as Mass Media, Mass Communication, Mass Production or Mass Consumption have become entrenched in the consciousness and lexicons of 21st century citizens. Yet, very few spare much thought to the fact that at a 'not-so-distant' point in human cultural evolution such ideas and notions would have involved or encompassed, at most, a few hundred(or thousand) individuals out of a global population of about half-a-billion humans?
Note: Currently, the world's global population is estimated at approximately 7.7 Billion
Additionally, the then existing written records were possible only through time-consuming and tedious process of handwriting or transcription everything that was considered culturally important or significant.
Iin all instances, those engaged in or dedicated to such tasks - monks, for example - represented an even smaller group of individuals who were capable of performing the enormous tasks of importing and translating oral sources of information and painstakingly transcribing these into written records.
I've often wondered what would have motivated the men of those periods to chose a life of 'self-enforced' solitude, stashed away behind closed doors while pouring over, reading, interpreting, writing, transcribing, distilling down to the essentials what was perceived as the, then, sum total of human knowledge of their times. Nowadays, a life of pure solitude to pursue such thoughts (remember that this is the 21st century. Life's now 7x24hrs.
Even with 'mass duplication' of the completed works for would have circulated among a readership that consisted primarily of royalty, religious leaders, nobility, aristocrats and the sundry 'educated and curious'. Not coincidentally but, rather, consequentially, the scope of the readership and print circulation represented some of the same aspects of the governing or ruling political power bases of the periods.
Speculating, it can be suggested that within any social and political structure that's dependent upon the delivery and validation of information that is first filtered through the lens of one particular group of 'advisors and ministers' and then disseminated for public consumption among the members of the political leadership will, in time, tip the balance of power in favour of those tasked with gathering and disseminating that information. Who guards the Guardians.
It's not mere coincidence that Communists, Stalinists, Maoists, Theocrats and other forms of tyrants and dictators always seek to control the forms and means of communications. It's, always, attempts to secure their rule or seat of power.
(This is not to infer that this does not apply to democracies - State Secret Acts and legislation are the balms that soothe the masses). Among them all there is a recognition or acceptance of the maxim - The Pen's Mightier Than The Sword; to have control over the source and the means to collaborative and public opposition is but another means of solidifying political power. Social revolutions may (generally?) begin at the grassroots of the social spectrum.
It takes someone with a comprehensive understanding of the existing power structure to galvanise and radicalise the social discontent that culminates at the root of political upheavals, revolutions and evolution.
There's never been any social model in which the governors or rulers are so perfectly happy, satisfied or secure in their position that simmering disaffection of the ruled can be dismissed or ignored as being of little or no consequence to the stability or sustainability of the existing existing social or political systems or structures. All societal models are based on a pyramidal model. It's One Ring To Rule Them All.
It's often said that men are social and political animals. Assuming that this is correct, then all human social groupings and associations are political activities where the primary objective of the process, or methods employed, aims at obtaining or maintaining support for a public opinion or common action.
While utopia’s an intellectual pipedream (academic exercise) democracy - a dog’s breakfast of ideas and opinions -, on the surface, it appears to be better suited for the free circulation of ideas and opinions in the social and public spheres of civil society.
Communism or Socialism, as ideologies (and in comparison) both seem to be half-baked ideas from which tyrants and dictators germinate. Both provide the masses with very limited options; and as such, universal acceptance as social models is often lacking among those who are oppressed by ideologues.]
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