Re: Cyberrhetoric/Sex, Drugs, R&R (fwd)

drieux H. (drieux@wetware.com)
Wed, 15 May 1996 08:37:49 -0400

Was the Medium the Massage????

forgive me for giggling, but the fact that we are all
swapping this by electronic means, does not change the
rather dull and pedantic fact that what we are doing
is maintaining the somewhat antiquated notion of 'literacy'
by creating a 'graphical representation of the data' in
a strictly linear format known propularly as 'the written word'.

granted, given that most humans type at far less than 60
words a minute, which at a five character word, means that
they are barely acing out a 5 baud on the I/O processor,
and getting that out over even the dull boring 38.8k baud
modem line, may add some spice to 'data transmission speeds'
but does squat all for the underlying 'semantical evaluation'
let alone the somewhat more complex construct of doing critical
evaluation of the data.

So the sole advantage that 'cyberspace' offers to the process
is mere SPEED! Unless of course, having Glowing Phosphor's
adds some MAGIK to it all, which the same processes by gleening
data off of "Murdered Tree Person Carcasses" does not provide,
but I highly doubt this.

As 'oldbies' have learned from life on 'the net' - Garbage does
not last long - since someone out there will rummage up the
requisite 'urban legend' file and be ever so kind as to forward
up the reference, made even more unkind by having URL's to
some 'web page' as a singular point of reference required for
folks to note that this or that 'myth' just does NOT stand
the test of 'time' - which is now shrinking ever more rapidly -
based soley upon the speed with which the data passes.

As some folks will recall from the recent catastrophy of the
Time Magazine 'front page issue' on CyberPorn, it took less time
for the net to debunk their core argument, than it would take
Time Magazine to find a graceful way of Dodging the fact that
they had fallen hook, line and sinker for the EverTrendyNewNeoConTripe.

Perhaps had there been a 'net' available in the sixties, much
of the Governmental Propoganda about 'drugs' and whether or not
doing 'asprin and coke' would kill you, and all the rest of the
Garbage that taught a generation to discount governmental BullSlinging,
might have been debunked long before we had to go through the process
of trying to teach kids that Heroin is NOT a lifestyle choice but an
addiction. And that the argument that marijuana leads to Heroin was
as valid as for Mother's Milk... Or was it that Bottle Feed Babies
lead to Heroin...

Not, I fear, that we have been able to 'win the hearts and minds' of
Generation X any better with the available technology, since the problem
remains that we must face the harder task of getting folks from seeing
mere 'graphical representations' of 'phonetic data' to the process of
information processing, once known as reasoning.

It would seem, therefore, that maintaining Useless Myths about the Sixties,
such as 'Sex, drugs and R&R' is as counter productive as confusing the
Harvest Festival with bringing in the Grain.

Unless I am mistaken, there are still practicing heterosexuals, who hope
to get it right, they still use a wide variety of psycho-active drugs, some
legal, some not even in the Chemistry Manual so that Law Enforcement
Agencies can outlaw them yet, and that RACKET the younger generation
listens to is still being fobbed off as 'rock'.

Why they even have a TV show now about Young confused persons trying
to figure out what to do with their life, called "Friends" and this is
backed up by some NuevoRetroSixtiesLikeAnthem.

What has me Worried the Most is the thought that in the year 2011 my
children will become all mystyEyed about the Nineties...

And even worse, that Mick Jagger will Still be fronting the
Rolling Stones since he still can't get a real job or Satisfaction...

ciao
drieux