Communication

There was a program on PBS a week or so ago about Alan Lomax, who took over responsibility from his father to record folk music from around the world. (I had taped the program and had just recently watched it.) In an interview in the late 1950s or early 60s, Alan talked about the decline in communication between people. He said that a few people with access to a million dollars could buy and control radio and television transmitters, and that people with very little money would buy the receivers. He called that a major human problem - the ability to silence large groups of the population - by limiting access to information. In essence, everybody is "off the air" except the people controlling the transmitters.

What struck me is that we are now in the middle of reversing that process because of the proliferation of computers and the use of the Internet. We are achieving what Alan called "cultural equity" by allowing everyone to communicate directly with anyone who chooses to be a receptor - by allowing anyone to read what someone has entered in a blog. Amazing technology.