roundtable: A Conflict of Two Cultures

roundtable: A Conflict of Two Cultures

A Conflict of Two Cultures

Vigdor Schreibman - FINS (fins@access.digex.net)
Mon, 17 Jul 1995 11:17:31 -0400 (EDT) 

Date: Mon, 17 Jul 1995 11:17:31 -0400 (EDT)
From: Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>
To: Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>
Subject: A Conflict of Two Cultures
Message-Id: <Pine.SUN.3.91.950717111516.29806D@access4.digex.net>


----------------Original Message Posted in Multiple Lists----------------- 
------------------------Republication Authorized-------------------------- 
  
FINS: Communicating the Emerging Philosophy of The Information Age       
FEDERAL INFORMATION NEWS SYNDICATE                    
Vol III, Issue No. 14 (118 lines)                             July 17, 1995
    
     
                  READ THIS ISSUE OF FINS TO CONSIDER:      
                                                             
                *   Participation in the construction of the NII
                                          
                *   The "cabal of the zealots" in charge
    
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CLOSING THE "VALUES-GAP": 
A Conflict of Two Cultures
By Vigdor Schreibman

     We are swiftly moving from a print based culture to an electronic one,
but to what desirable ends and by what legitimate means?  These questions
have not been answered.  The people-at-large are not well informed of the
meaning of this transformation, and those who represent the public interest
in the fields of education, libraries and information science still remain
without a coherent plan around which citizens and their representatives in
Congress may be guided, as numerous scholars have observed during the last
two years [Weingarten, 1995; Schreibman, 1994; Winner, 1993] [Fins-NC3-03].

     Nevertheless, the transformation is being sanctioned by the US Congress
without public demand, under a "contract with 100 corporations in America,"
according to Sen. Robert Kerrey (D-NE) [Fins-NC3-12]. This is terribly wrong.
All Americans must have an opportunity to participate meaningfully in the 
process of decision making that will affect their lives so profoundly.

     An example of the right way to proceed is the National School Network
Testbed (NSNT).  This is a terrific project now under development by a
collaborative group of 250 organizations including 150 schools across the
United States, organized by the Educational Technologies group of BBN, with
public support.  They have adopted the basic premise that "all members of a
learning community--in or out of schools--should be able to participate in
the construction of their local information infrastructure." 

     In addition, a prototype of cost-effective networking technologies for
school and home networking is now being built by Kenneth Komoski, of
Educational Products Information Exchange, <komoski@bnlcl6.bnl.gov>, and
Curtiss Priest, of the Center for Information, Technology & Society,
<bmslib@mitvma.mit.edu>.  They are equipping schools, training teachers,
educating poor and economically marginal families, seniors and the disabled,
and helping them earn the computers donated by private industry for that
purpose.  The project has an educational mission. It may also be a lifesaver.

     A study workshop was held Fri July 7, to assess the Komoski/Priest
project, funded by the MacArthur Foundation and attended by key leadership
institutions in education and technology.  FINS attended this activity and
raised concerns about the cultural conflicts in America that are constrain-
ing programs at the national level with regard to these important issues.

     Enlightened local initiatives cannot survive without integration into
the National Information Infrastructure.  Nevertheless, meaningful public
participation in the construction of NII does not exist, and public interest
groups are being largely shut out of the legislative process, while each
industry sector is getting the thing they want most, numerous observers have
told FINS [Fins-NC3-12].

     Such a rigged and lopsided decision making process, which could
radically transform the global civilization, is utterly bereft of 
legitimacy, particularly in view of the other most likely detrimental
characteristics of the expected development program.  For instance:
     *  Networks bias industry toward monopoly, or at least oligopoly
because on the demand side they are subject to economies of scale, according
to the Economist, in their July 8th issue;
     *  In the absence of sound publicly supported planning for the future,
it is likely that monopoly biased industries guided merely by the morality
of the market will proceed without balanced concern for the paramount social 
and environmental components of reality that are radically affected;
     *  The transformation is inherently eroding the geographic relevance of
all communities, libraries, and educational institutions, around which their
existence is now largely dependent;
     *  The transformation is deliberately designed to bring about massive
layoffs and dislocation of workers who have become superfluous as computers
take over their jobs without alternative prospects for employment in sight;
     *  The transformation is already producing a volcanic and obscenely
inequitable gap between the information-haves and information have-nots.  

     In a day not too distant from now, unless our present course is changed,
one can see the likelihood that millions of Americans will wake up to a
reality that has passed them by; their cognitive program for existence, which
they have inherited, will no longer fit the civilization in which they exist.
They will be superfluous individuals in a world dominated by computer-aided
information and telecommunications systems.  Without a viable way to sustain
their existence, they could sink into a life of madness and destruction. 

     A strong public lane on the NII is vital to adequately serve the
nation's public mission.  Nevertheless, reaching common ground has become 
exceedingly difficult.  The expected changes involve basic values impacting
the way people are related to each other in all spheres of life.  Such deep
changes are normally fiercely resisted.  In addition, the nation's cultural
bonds are breaking down.  A survey published in the U.S. News & World Report
July 10, 1995, points to three striking cultural fault lines.  First, there
is no longer any center in American politics.  Second, while more that 8 out
of 10 Americans "think they are much like most other Americans," almost 6 out
of 10 "don't think the people who run the country are like them." Finally,
the country is divided largely by the fervency of religious belief.  

     Open contempt shown for the national structure was strikingly revealed
by former President Ronald Reagan in the Iran-Contra Affair. When Congress
denied funding for the Nicaraguan "Contras" who were attempting to overthrow
the government of Nicaragua, Reagan ordered his staff to find a way to keep
the Contras, "body and soul together." This resulted in putting a "cabal of
the zealots" in charge, Congress later found.

     Now another "cabal of the zealots" have taken charge, to unilaterally
transform our civilization.  Only an informed people can assure a desirable
outcome, rejecting a narrow vision of the future and supporting preferred
alternatives.  Where is our Thomas Paine at this hour, and where are the
institutions with the courage and strength to support this momentous cause?

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