21 March 2011

A faceless medium

In the West honor comes across as adolescent and as not quite legitimate. 
Honor is not universalist enough for the sophistcated, non-judgmental values the Enlightenment morality of the West has achieved in its battle against enthusiasm. That sophistication of morality has heightened the notion of guilt at the expense of shame. 
The face to face encounter has lost its power. The modern media of mass communication, radio and especially TV, have altered the character of honor in our Western societies. Political leaders can now simulate the close-in, personal sense of a face to face encounter while maintaining sufficient distance and control over their image so they can deceive the preponderance of the audience. 
Radio and TV are thus excellent media for the hypocrisy that serves as the bedrock of fascism as well as the propulsion of the fascistic honor codes that can sweep an entire nation. Talk radio and political-mud-wrestling TV are another two instances of the face to face character of the modern mass media. 
The Internet, on the other hand, is a faceless medium well suited to the moralisms and the nuances of the progressive enlighteneds. 

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