Posted on 07/21/2008 7:02:02 PM PDT by Interposition
The advance of the computer/electronics revolution and the Internet can be looked at in terms of five main visions. Some of these are rather extreme scenarios that will come to pass only if the natural defenses of more traditional outlooks, acting in concert with representative democracy, cease to operate. Still, they are potential hazards that bear watching as we proceed.
Corporate Net: Huge conglomerates like Time-Warner, Disney, DreamWorks, and Microsoft have all the resources to offer the most acclaimed kinds of Net products. According to this view, the Internet will become another vehicle to increase the social and cultural dominance of sports industries, the Hollywood entertainment complex, the rock and rap music, the fashion industry, video games, and, of course, the "pornucopia."
All this will intensify consumerism. This is likely to end up with a world like that portrayed in Ridley Scott's haunting dark-future film Blade Runner (loosely based on Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), or in Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange (filmed by Stanley Kubrick), or with the antiseptic and soulless society of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.
Nerd Net: The Net does not really offer untold wealth and power to its participants. Rather, it often proffers to technonerds, wildly enraptured by the science fictional writings of cyberpunk guru William Gibson, an illusion of mastery. They play in their virtual environments and continually surf the Net in search of various kicks. The hacker elite flexes its muscles by implanting computer viruses or breaking into less or more important data banks. One might well ask how much meaningful social change does this generate?
If computer users are indeed the brainless, flat-souled product of the current-day consumption-culture and educational system, no amount of neat software and information is going to improve them. Indeed, only those who are real personalities -- real "persons of spirit" -- to begin with might start to have an impact. Only then might Gibson's vision -- in terms of the critical importance of "netrunners," though hopefully not in terms of a heavily polluted, corporation-run world -- begin to have some substance.
Rightwing Net: According to some, the Net is teeming with all kinds of right-wing ideas that have been suppressed in North America's public and corporate cultures. Alternative right-wing communities and lobby groups can form on the Net. The economic transformations engendered by the electronic cottage are also interpreted by some as having a conservatizing edge. People will increasingly cocoon around their family home and not have the need to go to the big office towers downtown, thus starving the inner cities of their last major source of tax revenue. The final result of this intensifying disjunction may be a scenario portrayed in such sci-fi movies as Escape from New York (and its 1990s sequel, Escape from Los Angeles), where the urban hell-zones are walled off from the rest of the country.
New-Age Net: The Net is indeed central to the future. It is the place where a new planetary consciousness is being born. Young people all over the world are forging links that are, despite the heavy corporate presence, independent of the transnationals. The Net will finally translate the world-transforming ideas of the new social movements that arose in the Sixties, into a concrete, global-wide reality. Further down the road, there may emerge the possibility of "uploading" human consciousness into electronic form, which some have envisioned could be a state of a human mind totally willing its own reality. The possible perils of Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality were explored in The Matrix film trilogy.
Fragmentation Net: The dislocations engendered by the Internet and the electronization of the world will constitute a profoundly trying time. Perhaps no one vision will ever triumph, and instability will become chronic. While the Net may encourage varied, high-level philosophical debate, it can also encourage varied kinds of depravity. One possible outcome might be a mentality seen in the Mad Max/Road Warrior movies — a "war of all against all."
While these scenarios are hypothetical, something along these lines might occur if Americans and Canadians fail in upholding the corrective functions of their respective republican and parliamentary systems. The obsession with technology, cyberspace, and the resultant social hyper-fragmentation could lead to the swallowing up of common public concern by an entertainment realm of images and illusions, and by various, ever more narrowly channeled, mutually unintelligible, micro-interests.
The result might well be a North American civilization unable to effectively deal with the rather more concrete local and global social and environmental questions, including serious threats from rogue regimes and groups, increasing disparities between rich and poor, overpopulation, mass immigration, the crisis of public and social morality, and global ecological collapse.
Washington’s 1796 Farewell Address contained some key concepts:[3]
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
If God can save the king, the queen of feminists is within His reach. Hillary, like Obama and McCain, found religion, but they lost the morality expressed by Washington, The Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Romans 13. The Republican National Coalition for Life[4] and Jim Robinson[5] proved beyond a reasonable doubt that McCain’s only regard for the Constitution is contempt; and that Obama’s is no better. Religion excised of morality is a dangerous idea with devastating consequences. If hypocrites crucified Christ, what will they do to His examplaries?
What sets these two members of the “the Rightwing Net” apart from nearly all the rest? The Republican National Coalition for Life has a mission to “protect and defend the Republican Party's principled commitment to legal protection for all innocent human beings, from conception until natural death.” [6]
Free Republic[7] is “determined to return the Constitution to its rightful place as the Supreme Law of the land as the Founders intended. The preservation and complete restoration of our Constitution and Bill of Rights with special emphasis on the first, second, fourth, fifth, sixth, ninth and tenth amendments and, of course, our right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness -- free of government intervention.”
They have written goals that are antithetical to McCain/Obama/Hillary. The remainder of “the Rightwing Net” adopted a different goal: "If You Don't Know Where You're Going, Any Road Will Get You There." As long as they can chatter, during their rapid transit down the road to perdition, they are content to remain oblivious about their final destination. Their claim to be conservative has too much evidence to refute. They conserve every anti-Constitutional policy liberals spontaneously generate from truth decay:[8]
[Its] history has been that it demurs to each aggression of the progressive party, and aims to save its credit by a respectable amount of growling, but always acquiesces at last in the innovation. What was the resisted novelty of yesterday is today one of the accepted principles of conservatism; it is now conservative only in affecting to resist the next innovation, which will tomorrow be forced upon its timidity and will be succeeded by some third revolution, to be denounced and then adopted in its turn. American conservatism is merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward to perdition. It remains behind it, but never retards it, and always advances near its leader. This pretended salt hath utterly lost its savor: wherewith shall it be salted? Its impotency is not hard to explain. It is worthless because it is the conservatism of expediency only, and not of sturdy principle. It tends to risk nothing serious for the sake of truth.
One blog is worth an honorable mention. Stiff Right Jab - [9] Finally, our parent organization is The Center For Moral Liberalism,[10] where our mission statement calls for the promotion of the Judeo-Christian ethic, limited government, and the American way. The focus here, perhaps more than anywhere else, will be principle centered, and over time, reflect some of the best scholarship and thinking in the country. And so, if you like to dig deep, this will be the place.
If a mission statement makes a difference, then the remainder of “the Rightwing Net” should find one that is noticeably different from the Final Solution of the Leftwing Nuts.
[1] http://www.thestar.com/News/Ideas/article/451270 A U.S. film crew was recently shooting a movie here about Amelia Earhart, starring Hilary Swank, with Toronto standing in for New York.
[2] http://www.eagleforum.org/psr/2002/dec02/psrdec02.shtml The feminist movement has had an immense effect on American culture, laws, education and social relationships. A principal tenet of the doctrine of Political Correctness, feminism is the prevailing dogma on university campuses and in the book industry. The feminists are powerful enough in the media, in schools and colleges, and in politics and government to intimidate most of their opposition, especially men. http://voxday.blogspot.com/2005/11/feminist-trajectory.html I've noticed that feminists tend to follow a certain trajectory over time:18-27 - arrogant and angry 27-35 - confident, but increasingly concerned 36-45 - privately resigned, but publicly chipper 46-55 - brittle and desparate 56+ - openly sad but not always wiser
[4] http://www.rnclife.org/reports/2006/spring/ “But certainly in the short term, or even in the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade, which would then force X number of women in America to (undergo) illegal and dangerous operations,” said John McCain as reported in the San Francisco Chronicle on August 20, 1999. He justifies abortion for babies conceived through rape or incest, a position requiring abortion remain legal. A Republican victory requires a committed, dedicated, pro-life, philosophical conservative standard-bearer, whose ideas strongly contrast with Hillary’s liberal/socialist world view. John McCain does not fit that description. http://www.rnclife.org/faxnotes/2008/jan08/08-01-16.html John McCain supports abortion for babies conceived through rape or incest and is an outspoken supporter of embryonic stem cell research, having voted to extend federal funding for such experiments.
[5] http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1962819/posts McCain is insane and there are many good reasons not to choose him, but I'll list just five: McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, McCain-Lieberman, the Keating 5, and the Gang of 14. No thanks. McCain is out! http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1601416/posts John McCain, you treasonous bastard, I challenge you or any of your traitorous cohorts... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1994885/posts Attn McCain Apologists: Talk all you want! But he's still a constitution trampling RINO and unless he repeals McCain-Feingold, repudiates amnesty and global warming, drops all support for embryonic stem cell research and stops talking about partnering up with the Democrats and instead swears to fight the evil bastards he won't be getting my support
[6] http://www.rnclife.org/about/ In addition, we will work to hold Republican lawmakers accountable to the pro-life principles in our platform. It is our desire to see those principles translated into public policy and law. Further, we encourage Republican Party officials to enthusiastically support pro-life candidates and policies consistent with our platform.
[7] http://www.freerepublic.com/about.htm A return to a strictly Constitutional form of federal government will automatically repeal and abolish all unconstitutional federal involvement in states issues such as: crime, health, education, welfare and the environment. The Tenth Amendment will again be in effect, which will bar all federal attempts at legislating social issues. This will also require that social programs such as Social Security, welfare and Medicare be repealed. So too, will most federal subsidies.
[8] 19th century theologian R. L. Dabney Reprinted in The Forecast, December 1996, p. 9).
[10] http://centerformoralliberalism.wordpress.com/about/ Present projects include Liberty Letters (quotes from America’s Founding Fathers with commentary from Center for Moral Liberalism, President, Steve Farrell, Out of the Best Books (featuring nearly daily readings from the Great Books of Western Civilization and a well organized, all in one place access point, to our selection of the best liberty books in the world), Stiff Right Alerts (daily legislative alerts from an array of political action groups - this project is now rolled in to Stiff Right Jab), Stiff Right Jab (daily political commentary from the most unique, principle centered, politically independent group of political commentators in the country.
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