Apocalyptic Discourse and Underclasses

October 24, 1996. Special Section to The Toronto Star entitled "Fast Foward" contains article by Wade Rowland. It is called "Class and the Net". One of the call outs:

We tend to think of any breakthrough technology in apocalyptic terms, and those who don't see in it the "end of civilization as we know it" are apt to lend to it magical power to solve all manner of difficult problems.

And then there is this turn on the digital divide:

To avoid creating a new underclass in the information age, we have to concentrate on traditional social goals like education and income redistribution. We have a political job to do ... Technology creates opprotunities; opportunities turn into problems when we fail to manage them properly.

The sentiment of these call outs is perenial ***** all the more poignant when we in this wireless epoch read in the body of the text that "[i]n the era of the Internet, access to information is a function of access to telephone jacks." The technology has evolved. Income redistribution not so much.

And so for day 704
16.11.2008