| A strange loop.
| |
| A strange loop.
| |
The Moral Judgement of the VillageOne way in which modern society is vastly, unimaginably different from that of even 100 years ago is in the degree to which people are concentrated in urban centers. Until well into the industrial revolution, the vast majority of the population lived in small villages, while only a relative few lived in cities.
One characteristic of crowded cities is that everything that's contagious spreads much quicker than in the less-populated countryside. This is true not only of the massive epidemics of polio and influenza, but also of the ideas and experience necessary to end those epidemics. Indeed, to a very large degree, the rate of spread of ideas was so much increased by urbanization that industrialization can be said to have brought on the information age more by spreading human knowledge than by the technology that industrialization provided.
But there's something lost, too, in the city. There's an anonymity here; reputations are less meaningful in the city. No one knows you, and committing an atrocity in one neighborhood will not necessarily condemn you two streets over. Would you do business with a thief, or socialize with a pathological liar? Yet, in the city, how do you know who are the thieves and liars?
That's one of the benefits of the village: have you ever known the moral judgement of a village to be wrong? The aggregate opinions of informed people tend towards accuracy and usefulness. That's why it's so important for a free society to be educated and aware of national and local events. And it's one of the things that the Internet is restoring to us.
Now, those who are interested in events can see them happen, and in context, and can see where our media repeatedly lets us down. Because of this ability to form communities of expedience, it's possible for information and opinion flow to lead rapidly to consensus and accurate moral judgement. And this should truly scare the entrenched elites - including the media - because by and large they've been lying to us for decades, and now we're finding out just how much. It's a small matter of time until the media is seen - correctly - as no better than tabloids.
The global village is coming; it just doesn't look like what we expected.
Posted by Jeff at May 13, 2004 11:32 PM | Link CosmosAlthough I tend to agree with your argument, you're wrong about an important point: YES villages have made incorrect moral judgements. Up until fairly recently, adult women living alone were subject to all kinds of unjustified moral prejudice.
Posted by: Stephanie on May 14, 2004 10:01 AMConceded. Although, in that case, I would argue that it was not the village's judgement that was wrong, but the moral standard of society. In rural areas today, using today's moral standards, adult women living alone are not subject to that kind of moral prejudice.
Villages often made wrong judgements about people just arriving or passing through, especially if they were of a different ethnic group. One of the interesting things about the net it it's becoming easier to go to a different village and bring your reputation with you.
Posted by: Karl Gallagher on May 14, 2004 06:00 PMI'm often accused of putting too many caveats in what I say. (It's like Den Beste's "Don't Write Letters" links!) Here's an example of why.
Karl, you are correct. I was referring to the judgement of a village about long-time residents of the village.
Other limitations and exclusions may apply. :-)
Posted by: Jeff on May 14, 2004 06:05 PM