Very interesting comment on the effect of the internet.
It's from an article on the internet and the power elite;
http://www.thedailybell.com/1204/Harry- ... igher.html
"Posted by John Danforth on 7/11/2010 10:02:35 PM
Nice interview. There are sea changes underway brought by computers and the internet beyond those mentioned.
Besides the crumbling of the information gateway of the mainstream press, there is the crumbling of brick-and-mortar colleges, with their economic gatekeeping and elitist control over thought and information as well. The cost of information is coming ever closer to zero, something never before seen in human history.
The difference between a candidate's debate on TV and unmoderated flame wars on the internet is that on the internet, the logical position eventually prevails, or at least has a chance to be aired. Thus internet-based schemes to spread misinformation and disinformation are ultimately doomed to fail (often comically).
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. So even with free information, getting the rabble to read and understand might be as impossible as ever. As long as the elite control TV, radio, and other forms of ENTERTAINMENT media, they might still exert a formidable amount of control over events. The problem for the elite is that, contrary to expectations, people use their computers for entertainment, flooding the network with porn and trivialities, thwarting any schemes for guidance and flooding attempts at broad surveillance.
Still, it is those who learn and use information that have the ability to affect the course of events. The decrease in the cost of information is washing the foundation from under brick-and-mortar instruments of control. The flood of mindless users buying ever more powerful machines and using them for mindless purposes simply serves to lower the cost of information further for those who would use it.
As the truth leaks like a sieve around the multi-billion dollar artifices erected to contain it, the emperor's new outfit increasingly becomes the subject of ridicule. The internet does help point out how ridiculous these schemes are. Enough people learn the truth and talk about it, and eventually the truth does reach the rabble. By the time Leviathan reacts by attempting to discredit us, it is already proving our point.
This is a sea change that avoiders of the internet won't perceive, even while they are affected by it.
I disagree with Schultz's take on technology. I'll just say it's obvious he doesn't have a background in manufacturing. Technology has reduced the cost to design and build machinery to less than 1/4 the cost of 30 years ago. Despite the destruction of our manufacturing base, the barriers to entry into small-scale manufacturing have been drastically lowered. And that is probably a good thing, considering what's probably in store for us."
I don't post things because I believe that they are the absolute truth. I post them because I believe that they should be considered.