MARK ZUCKERBERG'S PANDERA'S BOX.

     Mark Zuckerberg probably had no idea the mess he would cause. To a nerdy college student with mad programming skills, it was merely a means to communicate, to maybe talk to that hot coed. It fulfilled that objective, but at a cost few could have predicted. In the old days of newspapers with opinion pages, a letters-to-the-editor section was featured. People who wished to contribute their opinion alongside noted writers, thinkers or political philosophers were required to keep their commentary to 150 words or less, and were culled from thousands of submissions. An effort was made to present balanced opinions from a large cross-section of readers. But the opinions chosen were required to be concise, free of swearing, exhibiting some degree of reasoning and adherence to long-held cultural norms. They were also featured among a small group of highly educated, award-winning commentators. The editorial team corrected misspellings and awkward word usage. It was not difficult to have your opinion printed in a local paper, more difficult to succeed in a major regional publication, and almost never in a major publication. As a consequence much content that was conspiratorial in nature was winnowed out. Social media flipped the script. Anybody with an opinion could comment or post and instantly be shared with thousands. No censors, no insistence on civility or norms. You could literally sit on your bed in your underwear and be accepted, sometimes reTweeted or reposted. Additionally, Mr. Zuckerberg made it easier for men, mostly young men to send the world dick pics, and women, mostly young women to display their deep cleavage. It changed commerce, too. A smart person could hack into a person's account and send out texts to their friends saying something like: 

THEY: "I have good news for you, have you heard?" 

ME: "I'll bite, what?"

THEY: " There is a new government program for people like us. They will provide you with $5000 dollars with no strings attached. You merely need to send $100 dollars to this address to pay the package-delivery company." 

 

A sophisticated observer of our political system would be inspired to say, "there will be no generous grants to people like us, with no strings attached until Republicans stop giving no strings attached generous grants to the 1%."

   

  Liberals view words as a flexible medium where the meanings are well defined. A written essay is edited until a sense of perfection is achieved. Later, subtle changes can be made that keep the meaning but help to illustrate the point better, or spelling or punctuation flaws can be found and changed, depending on the skill of the writer or their degree of sobriety. These were more often the people who made it into the Letters to the Editor column. By contrast, conservatives, especially of the post-Teaparty era, view words as whatever they want them to be. An essay is finished when the writer loses interest, it sits there on the page as if divinely inspired. To use a colloquial expression, it's like spaghetti, you throw it against the wall. If it sticks, it's done. If it doesn't stick, you aren't doing it right. Until the demise of print media, now called "fake media", these writers were rarely represented in the letters-to-the editor section, so they were forced to get their thoughts from conservative writers still capable of using reasoning and logic, and having some competance with sentence structure and spelling. The demise of print media corresponded with the ending of the "Fairness Doctrine" by the Reagan administration. They, like most of us, were unable to predict the rise of social media. The result was the rise of an unknown DJ, a college dropout named Rush Limbaugh. His appeal to the poorly educated made him a Republican favorite. This was not print media, so those people found it more accessible. They did not have to read and, more importantly to think. Later came Foxnews, whose purpose was to be THE Republican party organ. It soon attained mass-appeal in truckstops and other places catering to mostly men away from families while working. Along came social media, which spread the popularity of these organs. Unhinged opinion then became the equal of sophisticated thinking. The end result of that gave birth to Birthers and Donald Trump. They, in turn gave rise to people who resisted Googling information because it was, Fake News, contaminated by the investment of George Soros. The latest unhinged social media group is QAnon, who believe that pedophiles infest the Democratic party who openly oppose rightwing legislators, often pedophiles. They also believe Democrats have these secret rituals with blood derived from babies. They are so secret no one seems to know where to go to attend these groups. They also believe, along with other rightwing groups, that George Soros is hiring people to attend these groups. Here again, I have no idea where to go to collect my pay. If you can text me I would be very happy to fix baby-back ribs and Bloody Mary's. 

     Science was now questions by people with no scientific qualifications. Education was controlled by people with only marginal experience. Judges were appointed to courts,  from the lower courts to the Supreme Court,  with poor professional qualifications, the whole concept of experience and knowledge was scoffed at. I don't  know the solution to this dilemma. Probably it will be a long struggle to regain the political and cultural literacy of the recent past. 

     There is a story about the invention of the printing press. Before any bibles were printed for distribution, reams of pages of erotica were already available. Before the Lollards taught their people to read with the Bible, men were passing out their dog-eared copies of Canterbury Tales. Just as the new social media led to Nigerian princes and presumed cash awards, an improved printing press that Mark Twain patented, cost him his fortune. He had to go on tour to raise money. The culprit was a fringe family member. 

     We are a curious animal. Constantly pushing forward, while a simultaneous group attempts to inhibit that progress for their economic benefit. Somehow, we continue to progress, though that is punctuated by the brief control of the dark side.