A Map Of Mankind (Part 4)
In the opening days of the 21st century, the scattered individuals of the human race find themselves at war.
This is not a war of guns and bombs, but of concepts old and new. Of ideas sacred and sacrilegious. Of the right to hold the keys to the kingdom.
Since the beginnings of the State and its unquestioned reign, the power of information has belonged to it and it alone. Uncounted are the tales of the State — in forms ranging from kings to popes to revolutionary councils — deciding the truth and worth of information. Religious dogma, scientific theories, the facts of the matter concerning knives in backs and hands washing each other.
In a world where knowledge can save lives or slit throats, those who control the information control everything. The key to keeping a society — a group of individuals united through communication lines — in check and under control is to control the information that they receive. It is no coincidence that the most intense era of state solidarity in history coincided with the same era that saw mass communication bottlenecked and heavily regulated by state agencies. When ‘media’ was a handful of newspapers and three national networks, building a consensus was a simple matter of releasing the proper information. With tight control of the media, governments could wage incredible wars of attempted genocide, burning cities and killing millions, all while presented their actions as a noble struggle of liberation and anti-conquest.
The ‘greatest generation’ was a generation fed lies and rose colored propaganda in newsreels and big budgeted Hollywood drama.
This facade began to crack during the Cold War, as news gathering technology allowed reporters to operate directly in the field and see things not meant for public consumption. Despite the fact that the eventual broadcast was still sanitized and controlled, the people gathering the news began to talk and tell stories. The proliferation of more and more news outlets — television, radio and newsprint — meant that those opposed to the governmental line (even if simply in preference to another governmental faction) had places to sneak their version of the truth into the mix.
From such hairline cracks do great fractures grow. Many are the tales of internal ideological struggle during the 60’s and 70’s as news outlets debated over covering the rapidly growing protest movement.
In the end, those debates mattered little. On the horizon were coming technologies that would make the elitist question of ‘what should we show the public?’ moot.
Cable and satellite increased the number of info sources vastly. Ironically, one of the boons of this was that the citizens of one language society now had access to the often conflicting reports of another language society. The geographical limitation that had caused the expansion of the social world to flounder was a facet in breaking the statist hold on information.
But those static and linear advances paled in comparison to the explosion of the modem and the Internet. When unleashed on the world, the new interactive media was nothing less than a popular revolution. In a few short years the entire world changed. The map of mankind became a truly global phenomenon.
But more than mere numbers was the simple fact that online communication was both individual and non-linear. A dozen conversations could be held at the same time, each participant being anywhere in the world. Connection was instant and ongoing. New contacts were made with chaotic, exponential speed.
No longer would individuals rely on the chosen and groomed purveyors of The Truth to tell them how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. Instead, they’d go directly to the angels and query them as to the numbers of their last dance recital.
The dominance of static, official media was broken. Individuals could now range the map themselves, asking eyewitnesses to whatever event took their fancy.
The statist response to this was slow — and still ongoing. It does not like it but — due to the speed and decentralized nature of the phenomenon, and it’s own glacial pace and hidebound mindset — there was very little it could do about it.
But the original generation of online cartographers was not the true worry to Those Who Once Controlled The Truth:
Their children were.
NEXT: You Are Here (II)
