Plato Wrote It Down
Sir Frederick
23Oct2009 http://city-journal.org/2009/bc1023at.html
In the beginning, Dennis Baron reminds us in his new book, A Better Pencil, there was the word�the
spoken word, that is. Oral tradition, the passing of knowledge through stories and lectures, was the
primary method of instruction and learning throughout early human civilization. But then a few
innovative souls decided to start writing everything down on stones and clay. Almost as soon as they
did, a great debate began on the impact of new communications technology on culture and education.
And it rages on today, with a new generation of optimists and skeptics battling over the impact that
computing, the Internet, and digital technologies have on our lives and on how we learn about the
world.
Baron, a professor of English and linguistics at the University of Illinois, begins his splendid
history of these debates with the well-known tale from Plato�s Phaedrus about the dangers of the
written word. The Egyptian god Theuth boasts to King Thamus about how his invention of writing will
improve the wisdom and memory of the masses. Thamus shoots back, �The discoverer of an art is not
the best judge of the good or harm which will accrue to those who practice it.� Thamus then passes
judgment on writing�s impact on society, saying he fears that the people �will receive a quantity of
information without proper instruction, and in consequence be thought very knowledgeable when they
are for the most part quite ignorant.�
Of course, as Baron points out, we remember this warning only �because Plato wrote it down.� It�s
one of the recurrent ironies in the history of techno-skepticism that while �the shock of the new
often brings out critics eager to warn us away,� those critics often embrace�or, at the very least,
benefit from�the very tools that they want the rest of us to shun. Whether it�s Luddites On-Line
winning Yahoo�s �Cool Site of the Day� award, or the Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association
promoting National Handwriting Day via the Internet, or Ted Kaczynski�s Unabomber Manifesto
attracting unprecedented readership thanks to its availability on the Web, those who have a �common
tendency to romanticize the good old ways� of doing things often fail to appreciate how new
technology can benefit society�including themselves.
Baron walks us through a litany of historical examples�the printing press, the telegraph,
telephones, typewriters, pocket calculators, personal computers, word processors, webpages, blogs,
social-networking sites, and more�and identifies the usual pattern: we greet each new technology
with deep distrust and dire warnings, but in time we adapt to the new realities. Indeed, as a
species, we have an unparalleled ability to learn new ways of doing things. We don�t always like
technological change, and often we deeply resent or fear it, but in the end, we learn to live with
it and eventually to embrace it.
With the rise of the Internet and digital technologies, we see this pattern unfolding once again.
�According to the latest generation of critics and naysayers,� Baron notes, �today it is computers
that are producing texts whose value and credibility we question; computers that are giving too many
people control over the creation and publication of text; computers that are wreaking havoc with our
handwriting.� Contemporary critics also fret over �information overload.�
The backlash against computers and digitization began while the Internet was still in its cradle,
with the 1992 publication of Neil Postman�s anti-technology screed, Technopoly: The Surrender of
Culture to Technology. Postman�s intellectual descendants include Internet critics such as Lee
Siegel, Andrew Keen, and Mark Helprin, whose works drip with disdain for all things digital. They
warn of a coming dystopia where truth and authority vanish, culture crumbles, and political
polarization breeds closed-mindedness and even the death of deliberative democracy.
These overly pessimistic critics turn a blind eye to both the wonders of the digital age and
humanity�s ability to adapt. As Baron persuasively argues, �English survives, conversation thrives
online as well as off, and on balance, digital communications seems to be enhancing human
interaction, not detracting from it.� In fact, we live in a world of unprecedented media abundance
that previous generations would have found unimaginable. As Baron puts it: �The Internet is a true
electronic frontier where everyone is on his or her own: all manuscripts are accepted for
publication, they remain in virtual print forever, and no one can tell writers what to do.� Such
human empowerment is worth celebrating, even if it does have the occasional downside. Abundance is
better than a world of scarce choices and few voices.
Baron�s retelling of the history of techno-skepticism is edifying, but it leaves one with the
nagging feeling that these debates will never cease. Each generation will witness a technological
watershed that brings out a fresh crop of both pollyannas and pessimists. Like Plato, however, most
of us will embrace whatever�s next and move forward.
Adam Thierer is president of the Progress & Freedom Foundation in Washington, DC and the coauthor,
with Brian Anderson, of A Manifesto for Media Freedom.
--
F M McNeill
858 206-3517
California, USA
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"When most Americans read the novel 1984 they were scared.
When Obama read 1984, he started taking notes."
- Rush Limbaugh
"The problem with Socialism is that eventually you run
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- Margaret Thatcher
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