Author: lux

Two op-eds this weekend decry the decline of reading in America today: Harold Bloom and Andrew Solomon. Kevin Drum takes Bloom to task for writing off the Internet completely. Solomon, to his credit, concedes that the Internet can have some good writing, but also assigns it to the same category as TV watching – non-interactive, alienating.

I actually agree with Bloom and Solomon that Americans should read more. What I take issue with is the sweeping generalization that the Internet is part of the problem. For example, this Solomon quote:

The Nazis were right in believing that one of the most powerful weapons in a war of ideas is books. And for better or worse, the United States is now in such a war. Without books, we cannot succeed in our current struggle against absolutism and terrorism. The retreat from civic to virtual life is a retreat from engaged democracy, from the principles that we say we want to share with the rest of the world. You are what you read. If you read nothing, then your mind withers, and your ideals lose their vitality and sway.

If Solomon thinks that the ‘virtual life’ is not capable of producing an engaged democracy, then he has not only never checked out any blogs but also slept through the entire Democratic primary season. Interaction and communication are the lifeblood of the Internet. It’s worth noting that long before the Web came along, most of the major functions of the Internet were interactive – email, mailing lists, and Usenet – not to mention IRC, MUDs and MOOs as well.

Of course, by posting this here instead of writing a letter to the editor, I’m well aware that I’m preaching to the choir.

Totally gratuitous side note: Andrew Solomon attended the same high school as I did, although he was a few years ahead of me. The Horace Mann School gave us a heck of an education. I grew to love Shakespeare by having to read several of the plays aloud in various English classes. The first time we did it, in 8th grade, I thought it was a little weird. But by 10th grade it was one of my favorite things to do in class.

Digby has a nice long post today about what happens when innocent people, like the guy whose crossword puzzle scribblings got him onto the Homeland Security watch list, get swept into the DHS’s web.

His conclusion?

The stories begin to accumulate, each one a random intrusion by dumb, underqualified government authorities who seem to have watched too much television and have very little common sense.

Dumb? Not quite. What I think we’re seeing is a bunch of people who do not know how to handle the situation they have been thrust into. This is not to say they’re stupid. They’re scared, and scared people rarely make smart choices. Just look at today’s latest security alert:

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge on Thursday warned Americans that al Qaeda may try to carry out “a large-scale attack” to disrupt upcoming elections, but offered no details and had no plans to raise the terror threat level.

Bottom line, this is about fear – or terror, if you will – and how humans respond to it. You’d think that by now we’d have learned that the predictable response is usually the wrong one, and that we need some new solutions.

How are people supposed to react when they hear ongoing unspecified warnings of terrorist threats? Absent any concrete information, those of a more fearful cast of mind are going to see a potential threat at every hand. A doodle on the edge of a crossword puzzle can be seen as a threat of lethal action. (There’s a Greek tragedy in there somewhere but I’m not smart enough to write it.)

Those of a more conspiracy theorist cast of mind will say that the government’s true intent is to keep American citizens cowed and fearful while they move forward to bring about their own nefarious goals. I believe that about as much as I believe the wingnuts who insist that anyone who seriously opposes the Clintons ends up dead – which is to say, not at all.

I have previously commented on the similarities of our current invasion of Iraq with Vietnam. But it also occurs to me that parallels to the “Red Scares” of the 20s and 50s are also apt for the times we live in today. Apparently we have to re-learn the lessons of history all over again.