I'm much closer to Chomsky on technology being far more neutral than some
think. The form of established power and how it dominates hasn't been
essentially different for a long time now, regardless of technology. The new
tools can make it more possible to achieve democracy, but they certainly
don't guarantee it.

Printing presses and later electronic communication made it possible for
more people to get more information and communicate with one another. But
the telephone, the magazine, TV and especially computers have served to
entrench power and sell tremendous amounts of garbage while laying waste to
the social and natural environment.

Unless people are able to use the technology for democratic ends, the
technology will be used to further anti-democratic ends. There is nothing
inherent in the printing press that makes Mein Kampf inevitable, nor in
film that guarantees My Little Chickadee. Entertainment, politics, commerce,
all are affected by the uses of new tech, but the full realization-as some
of us would see it- is hardly guaranteed just because it seems possible.

 The human agent breaking chains-literally-was more significant in ending
slavery than the human agent transfixed before a TV screen or sitting for
hours in front of a desk top playing games is significant in creating modern
social change. Or, to paraphrase Malcolm X referring to the US and its high
tech, massive weaponry in Viet Nam, when the sun went down, one little asian
brother with a blade made everything even-steven. And who won that war?

 The potential of this form is incredible, but so far, computers have meant
the marketing of more dog food, the dropping of more bombs and the
destruction of more people and other forms of nature. It makes democracy
more possible than ever before, but that's what was said - and was true - of
TV when it started. Once this thing is overrun with commercials and we're
shut out by pricing, the worst will have happened regardless of the wonder
full technology.We need to prevent that, and make the technology work for
democratic ends.

I'm delighted to have modern technology and am inspired by present
possibilities. But I'm also very concerned, and at times even frightened, by
the capacity of things to become more dreadful because of how the
technology is being used by established, capitalist power. We are creators
of the tools, and they are no more or less capable of doing things than we
decide.

fs