2-1-06

False Community

I have to confess, I didn't watch the State of the Union Address last night.  For one thing, I have difficulty paying attention to spoken speeches; my mind wanders and I lose track of what the speaker is saying.  Also, I'm not allowed to watch political news programming when my wife is home.  I get mad at stupidity and yell at the TV, which frightens the cats who are almost always sitting in her lap.  I did read the transcript on the White House home page, but I haven't gotten around to reading the Democrat Party reply, so, if you were expecting to find a deep and profound (or, more likely, lazy and sarcastic) commentary on the President's words and the words of his respondents, I'm afraid you'll have to be disappointed.
          In any case, as I said, I prefer to read speeches and news.  It allows me time to absorb the information, the varying views, and their implications.  I love my Houston Chronicle, and read it daily.  I generally have up to three books going at any given time.  I watch the local news at least once a day, and listen to talk radio (as much for entertainment as for information).  And I read various blogs and news sources on-line.  I'm not trying to pat my own back, here; I'm just laying down my authority for this discussion.  I'm addicted to information, and that gives me a unique view of its many venues.
          The thing is, there's a rift growing, there has been for a long time, between Americans, and our media, especially the "New Media" of talk radio and the internet, encourage it.  Yeah, I can already hear the chorus of outraged denial by my fellow conservatives:  "No, CN, the New Media serves to unite us, not divide us!  Never before have like-minded people had such an opportunity to band together over vast distances!"  But that's the problem.  In the pre-internet, pre-blogosphere, pre-Blackberry days, when everyone had only a few outlets for their opinion or inlets for ideas, we were all forced to at least consider the possibility that we may not be completely and unutterably right.  Now we have no such limiting feedback.  All we need is our computer and in seconds we can find hundreds of thousands, millions, of people who agree.  People who seem, at least partially, to think just like us.  Now, I'm all for a little positive feedback; it's nice not have to think you're crazy or stupid all the time, but it can go too far.
          It is not uncommon these days for people to have intimate knowledge of someone miles away (whom they've never met) while not even knowing their next door neighbor's name.  We like to say we're building communities, but they're ideological communities, based on reinforcement of our own crazy ideas, and not the imperfect, compromise-driven communities of local exposure.  And how well do we know the people in these communities, anyway?  I can trust my neighbor on the right to watch and walk my dog any time I go on vacation, and my neighbor on the left is always willing to help the people around him when work needs to be done.  Next Hurricane, I doubt that Robert Howard will drive down from New Hampshire to help me tie down my yard.  I doubt that Jonathon Dalton will be flying in from London any time soon to feed my dog while I take a vacation, either.   This isn't to say that either of them isn't a fine person.  What I know of them through various forums suggests that they would indeed do these thing were it not for the physical difficulties, but they both live thousands of miles away.  They are not, internet association notwithstanding, part of my community.
          Internet communities are, by their very nature, vain, masturbatory substitutes for real connection.  No matter how many times you type "*hug*" the person on the other end will never feel the warmth and sharing of an actual hug.  No matter how often the editors decry the stuffiness of Britannica, Wikipedia will never be a reliable source of information because true editorial accountability doesn't exist on the internet.  You can't hold it in your hands and point to the passage; heck, half the time you can't even reliably link to the passage because pages and sites so often go south (or, in the case of Wiki, get edited by a griefer or a fanboi).  It's ephemeral.  It's not real enough to count on.
          It's really only real enough to allow us reinforcement.  It's not a particularly good kind of reinforcement, either.  It reinforces beliefs that may not be true by exposing us and allowing us to limit ourselves to those who agree with us.  It's one thing to buy a new car and to suddenly notice the amazing number of people who have a car of the same type and color; it's quite another thing entirely to spend all your time in the Blue Escort ZX2 forum.  Your worldview changes.  You begin to believe that your opinions and choices are the norm and that all other choices are somehow invalid.  Or, more commonly, you begin to see yourself as part of a vast, oppressed ideological minority, held back by nebulous forces that just "don't get" the wisdom of your community's view;  the Explorer Elite, holding down the honest, hardworking Escorters.
          It's a dangerous trend.  America is a beautiful country because we have a few cracks in our glaze; they provide a warmth and usefulness that complete accord does not.  But too much pressure can deepen those cracks, and break the pot.

Next Time:  How did we get here?