So, a new television network... I'm in debate with myself as to what it would be. Like the book I'm working on, my taste is eclectic. Would it be anime, simply good shows with fantastic stories (things like Firefly come to mind), Pagan-related, history, science...? Our world is so diverse; it is a difficult thing to settle on only one niche.
This segues neatly into some of the thoughts I've been having recently. The Internet is currently doing to television what television did to radio. Beyond that however, are the cultural impacts. Conflict - especially war - requires a Self/Other binary opposition; essentially, there has to be an Us or Them mentality. Among the younger generations, at least in my observations from a western first-world country (certainly a limited viewpoint), this is changing. There are still Self/Other mindsets, but, they seem to be divided along different lines than has ever come before. People are categorizing themselves now, not on a larger national basis, but more on an individual interests basis.
To pre-counter some arguments, allow me to clarify. Yes, people still think of themselves strongly according to their nation. Come a national crisis, this is obvious. The point I am making is that nation as a defining characteristic is becoming secondary. We are, instead, hoards of individuals belonging to many, many, different groups.
It is an obvious jump to say that this is due to technology, specifically that of interconnecting. The Internet is the behemoth of this but one cannot discount also cell phones, world broadcast media, and widespread publishing in all forms. Like movable type, the long-term cultural ramificaitons are worth a life-time of study and just as fogged to us as to those in the 15th century. We are in many ways in an information Renaissance.
1 comment:
In this mindset America can be compared to China. To clarify, it is not simply the Internet (or any technological improvement)that makes the individual more removed from the whole, but with the support of the "American Dream" the Internet becomes the literal fantasy of (our?)individualistic imagination.
My Chinese English professor stated, without using examples, that China's dream is for everyone to be the same. My class did not respond respectfully to this, as expected at the time of the 2008 Olympics, yet I wish she had explained more of that philosophy for she is a strong Chinese nationalist. In fact, China's history of technology and philosophy is very interesting, for it has often been coupled not with individual rights, but with the whole nation- but perhaps their massive territorial burden has inhibited the "evolution" of the individual over the whole.
Regardless, the Internet and other forms of mass communication coupled with a huge influence of the individualistic fantasy may seem "wholesome" but whether or not this is a healthy development remains to be seen. Well, other people may be so bold as to doomsay the age of human interaction but I can't say that such extreme pessimism is true.
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