4 ms·
> Douglas Adams totally nailed it when he wrote that removing barriers to communication could become the cause of conflict. Where are all the really big wars s
by vacri 9y ago
> Douglas Adams totally nailed it when he wrote that removing barriers to communication could become the cause of conflict.
Where are all the really big wars since the advent of mass media? There's a large amount of forest-for-the-trees-ing here. In our domestic politics, we've grown more polarised, but our societies in general are more harmonious, more integrated. One of the problems the globe is facing is that the lack of wars has removed one throttle on human population growth. Removing barriers to communication has significantly improved civil rights as well.
I guess my point is that just because things aren't perfect now, doesn't mean that they're worse than they were previously.
- jacquesm 9y agoI think you could easily make the case that without mass propaganda World War II would have turned out completely different. There are some serious echoes of the past in the present.
- vacri 9y agoWWII's mass propaganda did not have the 'zero bar' suggested in your article. It was state propaganda, not 'the babel fish'. It's also not like WWII Europe was a 'harmonious group' (or Europe of almost any era). I think that's a core error in the article; that before the babel-fishing internet our societies were harmonious.
- dredmorbius 9y agoThe American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Revolutions of 1848, the Franco-Prussian War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, the Russian Revolution, World War II, the Chinese Revolution, the Cold War (which to a large extent was prosecuted as a propaganda / media war). And the current propaganda wars by Russia against the United States, UK, France, Germany, Qatar, and others. I've listed to bibliographies / references elsewhere in this thread addressing several of these examples, others are quite easy to find.