Bandwidth and Subculture

I have been brooding, as I know Beth Lock has, about the frenzy of Internet publishing. What’s fueling this, of course, is massive bandwidth and lots of great software tools for publishing.

The downside, however, is that the American culture can become too fragmented.

I remember when I was in high-school, there were three networks and lots of good libraries. Not so many bookstores. No cable. Everyone knew who the TV heros were, and there was a certain commonality of values. I’m not saying that diverse views are bad; they are good. Too much commonality leads to repression and prejudice. But the pendulum can swing too far the other way: it’s possible to have so many diverse views that the expression of those views can create problems as each of us delves into and fixates on a different subculture.

For example, while I tended towards obsessive reading of Robert Heinlein when I was in high school, there weren’t that many subcultures to get hooked into. Lots of my friends read science fiction. We all watched Star Trek. There were a few other common high school subcultures, sports, politics, business, but we all more or less got along.

Nowadays, however, it is entirely possible to get tuned into so many different combinations of publishing channels and become enamored with cultish ideas that common ground is fading. Internet surfer A hangs in a Myspace.com chat room talking hip hop, Internet surfer B focuses on Libertarian blogs, Internet surfer C does nothing but listen to MacCentral podcasts, and so on. Multiply this by millions of surfers accessing hundreds of different channels of thought, in all possible combinations, and the result is that intolerance for alien ideas rises exponentially.

Last night on the CBS news (another channel with its own unique biases) there was a story about a woman whose husband is in Iraq. She has posted a very discreet “Support our Troops” sign at the edge of her garage. The home owners association wants her to take it down for fear of inciting neighbors who may have a different view. And avoid a “sign war”. The president of the home owners association is a Gulf War veteran, but stated that rules are rules and the covenants allow only for For Sale signs, small security service signs, etc. Her husband sent word from Iraq. Pay the fine and keep the sign up.

Freedom of speech implies respect for other people’s opinion combined with self-discipline. If no one respects anyone else’s right to express a view, then freedom of speech is lost. If we spend too much time visiting and dwelling on all these different channels of thought, too many diverse and argumentative personalities are formed, real communication breaks down, and freedom of expression becomes, instead, a spitting war. Sometimes worse.

It doesn’t help, as has been previously noted by others, that many walk around with iPod ear buds on, further distancing people from each other, tuning each other out.

The next time someone expresses a really wacko idea, on the Internet or in your face, I recommend some wise words from Robert Heinlein. “Eighty percent of wisdom is minding your own business.” In other words, self-discipline, respect, tolerance and grace.