I have always been skeptical, as a historian, on how "media revolutions," seen from the perspective of the past, starting from antiquity -- speech, print, film, radio, television, internet, or no speech at all (our 21st century status, if one watches American television, where mumbling/background sound has replaced the wonder of the word) -- can fundamentally change the heart of humankind.
Plato, as we all know, was against writing, a medium he felt did damage to memory.
In this skepticism I follow, to some extent, the thought of Mr. Evgeny Morozov (a bright Belyorussian exile from communism), but certainly no Plato, an astute but somewhat unsubtle critic of the so-called liberating aspects of the Internet.
But Mr. Morozov, in whatever universe he lives in, never bothers, despite my admiration for his work, to respond to any of my polite emails to him about his ideas, even if he once addressed my Georgetown University class.
In his all-American refusal to bother with the cyberlumpen, pundit Morozov is like his cyber-adversary -- the vulgar (I can draw no other conclusions from his endless self-promotion) Mr. Jared Cohen, a former State Department "social media" guru whom I also contacted repeatedly via email, with of course no reply.
Yes, Jared was Rhodes scholar! Of course, Evgeny is not jealous about this, given his dissident credentials. They clearly hate each other -- such is human nature -- but they are for more alike than they proclaim.
They listen to only themselves, off on cyber/anti-cyber ego trips.
All-too-simply, Morozov says the internet can be dangerous, whereas Cohen thinks it can be liberating. But that doesn't dispel their identical thinking: We know what you (i.e., we) want, don't bother sending us an email.
Finally, may I suggest that, despite their "opposing" views, Cohen/Morozov are both part of the new cyber-aristocracy, one that never bothers to answer to messages electronically directed to them from ordinary citizens, despite their proclamations about universal "interconnectity."
Have you ever tried to get a real human voice answer to that "model" of "interconnectivity, "Google?
Of course, in the Cohen-Morozov view, bottom-line, the world is all about "who's important" -- me and my career. F--ck those who don't count.
Frankly, you self-proclaimed cyberguys/heroes, I humbly think I'm as "important" as you are, no matter how insignificant I, Princeton Ph.D and senior Foreign Service officer, may seem to you.
So please have thecourtesy to reply to well-meaning messages, if you have any sense of propriety and politeness -- and the human decency you proclaim.
Plato, as we all know, was against writing, a medium he felt did damage to memory.
In this skepticism I follow, to some extent, the thought of Mr. Evgeny Morozov (a bright Belyorussian exile from communism), but certainly no Plato, an astute but somewhat unsubtle critic of the so-called liberating aspects of the Internet.
But Mr. Morozov, in whatever universe he lives in, never bothers, despite my admiration for his work, to respond to any of my polite emails to him about his ideas, even if he once addressed my Georgetown University class.
In his all-American refusal to bother with the cyberlumpen, pundit Morozov is like his cyber-adversary -- the vulgar (I can draw no other conclusions from his endless self-promotion) Mr. Jared Cohen, a former State Department "social media" guru whom I also contacted repeatedly via email, with of course no reply.
Yes, Jared was Rhodes scholar! Of course, Evgeny is not jealous about this, given his dissident credentials. They clearly hate each other -- such is human nature -- but they are for more alike than they proclaim.
They listen to only themselves, off on cyber/anti-cyber ego trips.
All-too-simply, Morozov says the internet can be dangerous, whereas Cohen thinks it can be liberating. But that doesn't dispel their identical thinking: We know what you (i.e., we) want, don't bother sending us an email.
Finally, may I suggest that, despite their "opposing" views, Cohen/Morozov are both part of the new cyber-aristocracy, one that never bothers to answer to messages electronically directed to them from ordinary citizens, despite their proclamations about universal "interconnectity."
Have you ever tried to get a real human voice answer to that "model" of "interconnectivity, "Google?
Of course, in the Cohen-Morozov view, bottom-line, the world is all about "who's important" -- me and my career. F--ck those who don't count.
Frankly, you self-proclaimed cyberguys/heroes, I humbly think I'm as "important" as you are, no matter how insignificant I, Princeton Ph.D and senior Foreign Service officer, may seem to you.
So please have thecourtesy to reply to well-meaning messages, if you have any sense of propriety and politeness -- and the human decency you proclaim.