Insomniac ramblings late night
sorry holidays something something

It’s 3:20 a.m. and I should be fast asleep since I have to get up in 4 hours for yet another long day…but I’m not, I’ve been working busily away and now I can’t stop my mind from racing so I figured I might as well do this, which I’ve been meaning to for ages.

Sorry I haven’t posted in a long time. I’m not going to apologise or make excuses for not posting, I’m sorry, I’ve been busy and I just haven’t gotten around to it, and I won’t apologise for it.

Anyway I was just writing an editorial about the insane “Happy Holidays” v. “Merry Christmas” debate raging among those nut jobs in the U.S. and it got me all riled and thinking in a political context. I tried to take a quick break, picked up the nearest magazine and ended up reading an Adbusters article on how we all have to unmediate ourselves, as in get rid of all the technology (cell phones, computers, iPods, TV’s, video games etc) between us and the real world.

Now I love Adbusters, I think it’s one of the few best magazines out there, and I don’t say that lightly, but that constant ‘evils of technology’ undertone always annoys me. This sort of Luddite mentality that technology is some kind of dark force outside ourselves, acting upon us in strange and often negative ways and that we all need less of it to be better people is so absurd.

Now anyone who knows me knows I’m no techno junkie, and you can check 3 entries ago, I like simplicity. Obviously most of us spend too much time suckling the boob tube or playing with our joysticks, but “technology” is not the latest electronic gadget, “technology” is simply all our tools, methods, skills etc that we use. The printed word is technology and I don’t think intellectuals spend a lot of time rallying against the printed word. A house is technology, the wheel, systems to clean water, cook food, etc etc.

I’d argue that technology is neutral, it can’t, almost by definition, be good or bad. It can be used for good or bad, but even something that is widely regarded as “bad” or is usually used to negative effect, like a bomb, isn’t in itself a good or bad thing. A bomb sitting in a warehouse is just an object. A collection of parts. It has the potential to be dangerous, but so does the printed word.

Many more people are killed by heart attacks every year than by bombs, does that make the couch an evil technology?

When shrill people yap on about the dangers of modern technology and how it’s corrupting youth and how violence is going to turn all the kids into serial killers (because the ancient world was so peaceful?) I’m reminded of this quote:
Children today “have bad manners, contempt for authority, show disrespect to their elders...They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents…and are tyrants over their teachers." That could easily be some grumpy old guy in 2005, but it’s Socrates.

We’ve always had things mediating the way we experience the world, whether a virtual reality headset, book, or the masked shaman telling a story around the campfire. Human history is the history of us using technology to help us mediate our perception and understanding of the world around us.

Anyway I’m finally feeling tired so I’m going to try to sleep.

Happy Holidays.

Ps. If you’re not up on the “holiday” debate check into it, it’s funny & maddening. Some starting points:
Banner: http://www.sptimes.com/2005/12/10/Hillsborough/Banner_stirs_Christma.shtml
O’Riley: http://mediamatters.org/items/200511100014