Saturday, April 15, 2006

Who knew that Frank Zappa was the level-headed one?

One of the flaws of television is the lack of continuity. What's said today is gone tomorrow. Images flash across the screen while words and sounds emit from a speaker. It's quick and it's easy.

As a way of quickly conveying thoughts and images, television is an excellent tool. Unfortunately, television has a short memory. Did you tape that interview given by a politician, record that press conference? Not very likely.

What are the chances you'll be able to go back and watch it again? Pretty slim.

So, if a talking head says 'A' one day and then says 'B' several weeks, or months, or years later, will they be questioned about it? Again, not likely. Who will remember?

The internet offers up a similar set of problems. Perhaps even greater one's because of the speed and reach of it. If I blog about something one day, then delete it, and then a month from now deny it, who will question that?

There's a good side to the internet too. The spread out nature of it makes more accessible to the average man. Anyone can have a say and be heard. If enough people want to hear that person's thoughts, the reach is nearly infinite. Sitting in a room in Wisconsin, I can reach around the world. That's crazy.

Another thing that is happening is that some far-seeing people have realized the importance of archiving some what's going on in the world. Their efforts help to insure that the revisionists in government, the media and business can't completely shape the past to fit their current whims.

All this is a long-winded way of saying I found this interesting little snippet from way back. If you watch it all, you might realize that Frank Zappa made a couple of prescient calls that seem eerily true today.

3 comments:

Miranda said...

The internet does have similiar problems, although some of those problems have remedies. Google caches copies of webpages, and www.archive.org often records things for years.

And even if you didn't record what one politician said some time ago, someone else may have. The Internet makes it easy for you to ask people around the world, "Hey, do you remember what X said about Y?"

Still, there's plenty that goes unremembered - and that's an interesting thought.

Shawn said...

I love archive.org!

Miranda said...

It's a great thing ;) Though it doesn't seem to be capturing as much as it once did.