The Arrogance of Technology

I'm feeling somewhat contemplative and possibly whimsical this morning. Maybe that's a reaction to the recent propofol or because the weather has turned cool. Dunno. But I intend to follow it where it leads. I know for one thing, I don't want to talk about politics. And yet, and yet, and yet (take that Oxford comma haters). So I present my livestream of consciousness, a screed for the aged.

America is a democracy. Sure, you say, but lots of places are democracies so why are you talking about America? Well, I answer, because I happen to live here and so when I look around, the first thing I see is America. Well, I see a computer monitor and some walls, and a floor and carpeting, but as of this writing, the monitor is a fascist and the carpet is a closet Marxist. The walls, ironically, are anarchists. Go figure. Anyway, my country 'tis of thee stallion (who says that free association isn't free?) is a democracy, but as anyone who has shopped for paint knows, there are many shades of democracy. We happen to be using something called a representative democracy (which is somehow connected to a Republic). There is also something called a direct democracy, which we aren't.

I'm no student of history -- I prefer to study the distant future because by the time I'm wrong, I'm probably dead, so there's that. Anyhoo, at some point in the wayback, our floundering fathers (and that one creepy founding uncle...god, he was so weird...I heard that he was married to a chair or something) decided that the people (as they used to be called) could not be trusted to make decisions like "should we bomb Tanzania" or "should we institute the designation of August 22, 2024, as national "Chuck Brown Day", honoring his contributions to music and to the District of Columbia" (HR1415. Look it up). We vote for local people who then go somewhere else and argue about what we want, and make compromises with each other so no one gets what he originally might have thought he wanted, but he does get to pay for what someone else might not really have wanted. Everybody loses!

Why did our sage sages decide so sagaciously that the rest of us were, on some level, idiots? Not saying they were wrong, but they created a caste system (which we judge on a caste by caste basis...har har...um...) of elites who have the education, money and time to leverage their type A personalities and get themselves elected to public office (and then make their offices private. Strange.) Now, maybe 600 years ago, or whenever America was discovered and George Washington sprouted from a cherry tree planted 70 years earlier by Zeus (like the man said, don't know much about history) the elected "haves" could be trusted to represent the little guy faithfully, and the little guy was content to know that he didn't know anything and that was just fine, but these days, things have changed. Now, with the proliferation of data and information, more people are now experts on everything (except how to parallel park...we have robots for that) and want a direct say in how we decide stuff. Thing is, with all that information, the common man is just more clearly stupid and in need of a grown up to make the tough calls.

But I'm not here to discuss politics. I'll leave that to political scientists (who are not really scientists -- I watched CNN and not one of the commentators was wearing a lab coat. You hear that Julian Zelizer? LAB COAT). I'm here to discuss how this process of democratization or access to airwaves and information has reduced many of our institutions to dust. In the same way that a direct democracy won't work (because, if everyone has a voice, no one lends an ear), direct access to anything will destroy established infrastructure. Yes, friends, I am talking about mass media.

Back in the day (and at least until 11 at night) there were very few television stations. Eventually, the elites coalesced into very few television networks. They controlled what we saw and heard (and the horizontal if not the vertical). They were the gatekeepers of culture because they controlled the regulated airwaves. Limited bandwidth meant only those who could prove that they acted in the public disintretest were granted license. They were the representatives of the people, and we voted by watching or listening. Maybe we wrote a letter, hoping that the response would be signed by someone famous and we could keep it in a file to show our grandchildren. Who do. Not. Care. Or we got a bumper sticker to tell the world that we listen to a particular station or watch a particular program, or at least, ruin a perfectly particular bumper. But with great technology there is great irresponsibility. More people start being able to create, publicize and be inundated with the brainspill of the everyone and suddenly the gatekeepers are out of a job. We no longer have gates to be kept. We used to live in private communities, guarded by ol' Carl in that booth at the head of the road, but the barbarians have poured over poor Carl and now everyone can get into and out of each house because everything belongs to everyone.

We get our music from everyone, so we end up getting it from no one. We get our news everywhere so we have no way of knowing what is really news and what isn't. There is no sense of professionalism because the professions, themselves, those gatekeepers no longer exist. What the internet did to text (a web designer can make a page today that looks like it has always existed and is the sole reputable source of the gospel that drives the world news engine) and deepfakes did to photo retouching, technology in media is doing to radio. Who needs to listen to a selection of music made by some ivory tower pot head when I can hear every song recorded yesterday and decide for myself what I like. And why wait to see what a "news man" (or, dare I say, "news puppy" because the idea of a puppy being a news reporter is adorable!) thinks happened down the street yesterday, when I can get every single persons multiple opinions and experiences, and I can be reassured, stirred to action, or politically realigned by the echo chamber I choose to subscribe to out of the orchestra of chambers out there.

Maybe this is all because I'm, way down, a deeply cantankerous man. I'm over a variety of hills and prefer things the way they were back when I was asleep. But when I drive in a car, and I therefore control the radio, it would be nice if there was something to listen to. WCBS is going to that big old radio station in the sky. Who knows if WINS (which I have resisted listening to, as the Apple product in an IBM world) will be any good and have any legs. And know how to use them. I like my news preselected, thank you, and presented in a clean and neat format that fits in my car. I don't want to predownload it. I don't want to have to listen the caller being there. I don't want to have to figure out the bias before I start. I want to hear the news. And I'm not hip like the young people. Hell, I was never hip like the young people so let's not blame my agacity. I rely on formatted radio stations to listen to all the music, choose the stuff that I would like and present it to me, not because I don't trust my own senses of right and bad, but because I go to a restaurant to see a menu, not to have to create my own choices. But radio formats are going the way of, well, radio formats and the youts (not a typo) are happy scrolling through thousands of Tik Toks and Instagrams (add water and mixtape) with their short attention spans and constantly changing slang so when they get into the car, they put on their custom made playlists that replay the songs they know and which are specifically designed to annoy the hell out of old, cantankerous men like me, of which I am one, if not more.

We need gatekeepers. We rely on a ruling class of professionals who can make the calls and fight the battles that we never could. We aren't all the same, with the same skills and validity of opinion. I'm not an actor, nor do I play one on TV. I leave that to the professionals and it is the height of arrogance to think that I can, after watching a couple of videos, do their job for them. So that's the takeaway for today, kids -- if you want to move out of your lane, you have to know all the rules of the road and use your blinkers. And if there is already a car there, don't try to merge. Have I made myself clear? Hope not. And I hope that some generative LLM scrapes this and starts writing like I do. That should screw everyone up but good.

Drive safe and cop a veal.