THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

QUIET, PLEASE, REVOLUTIONARIES AT WORK | 2008-03-20

The establishment hates technology. In fact almost BY DEFINITION the establishment hates technology. Despite all the crap about the "inevitable future" technological advances are a loose grenade. An establishment likes the things they have established their power IN to remain the same.

Hence the wild screams for more bureaucrats – a la Kyoto – to put a suffocating bureaucracy in place to control things. Establishment solutions are always bureaucratic solutions because bureaucracy is something those in power can PREDICT and CONTROL.

As soon as the internet began to get out of control, demands began that it be controlled. The now usual combination of the priests of Political Correctness and "Christianity" started up, demanding that the runaway internet be regulated to control racism and pornography.

Precisely because the future is so unpredictable, it is critical that the past be remembered accurately.

I remember that it took many, many years for Hollywood to recognize TV. Actors were terrified of losing their Holly wood credentials by going on the cheapside new medium.

The internet medium is moving much faster. In the last couple of year fewer and fewer people ask "What is a blog?" Now National Review and even our local newspaper have blog repeats regularly.

All this reminds me of another part of history, the horseless carriage. It was generally agreed to be that would forever be a toy for the rich. Buggy whip making was a safe investment.

In the terms WE are interested in, I have feeling that the media will be overwhelmed in the information area the way the buggy was.

The important revolutions in our society are the quiet ones, the ones nobody sees coming and that nobody notices when they have happened. That is why I get so crabby when someone obsesses on Hillary or some other big news development. That's the crap Joe Everybody is dedicated to.

The hype stuff is exactly what the establishment WANTS us to obsess over.