Adam Kenner's "Why It's Important" Page
Introduction
We have to work to maintain a balance of needs and resources in our society. At this moment in history, there are significant societal needs which go unmet: poverty, education, homelessness, crime, a failing political structure, public incivility and apathy, _________ (add your favorite societal gripe here). Meanwhile, billions of dollars and millions of hours of effort are expended in researching, developing, evaluating, purchasing, installing, maintaining, troubleshooting, repairing and discarding technology to meet needs which exist only because of the technology itself and which are all fundamentally (and misguidedly) in pursuit of profit. This is a fundamental imbalance in our culture, and one which will contribute to our downfall--cf. Mayans, Greeks, Romans, _________ (add your favorite technologically advanced and now extinct culture here).
Examples
It rapidly becomes too expensive to support older generations of technology so systems that have outlived their usefulness in one organization may be of little value to another (to set two cliches in opposition to one another, even free is sometimes too expensive, but never look a gift horse in the mouth).
The media holds and exercises tremendous power over the opinions and attitudes of the American people (and perhaps this is true in other countries as well, but I can't say). Although the media claims only to provide a necessary conduit for information, their true primary function is that of filter rather than channel. "The medium is the message," said McLuhan, and indeed the message is increasingly one of profit over process.
Information about American citizens is collected, sorted, cross-referenced, stored, packaged, filed and made available for sale regularly by corporations and governments and then used for power or profit without the knowledge or consent of the citizens themselves.
Are there more examples? Of course. There are hundreds. Look around and think about the variety of ways in which we have unwittingly handed over control of our lives to others whose motives are monetary or authoritarian, and you will see that we are all headed down a very slippery slope--more slippery and steeper than you may have thought.
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Adam Kenner / 5 November 1996
kenner@cloud9.net