Bruce,

The idea that the wisdom and feel of the ages can not be transmitted in 15 sec bites. The oldies but goodies are the way mankind has transmitted lessons learned for millennia. Whe the new media implies is a possible break with the past and the need to reinvent all those lessons in a new language that might take a hundred years to re-educate people in a new way with new stories and myths.  Of course that is accomplished by repurposing old stories in new electronic covers... but a whole new ethos comes out of 15sec bit story telling. I understand people would sit and listen to Lincoln-Douglas debates for hours on end, in great masses. I don't think that would have worked even in the early twentieth century.

Britt


Bruce wrote:
It bothers me, however, that a large segment of worthy human thought has
been recorded in a manner that cannot be adequately conveyed in all its
nuances in a 15-second soundbite.  Henry James "Wings of a Dove" may indeed
be summarized in a paragraph, but how does that convey the wonderfully
descriptive prose and slow turning toward a tragic ending?  And I can't
imagine one of these information bombardees sifting through a treatise by
Kant or Tocqueville.  Shakespeare?  Nyet.  Classical music?  No time.
Plato?  Eeyu, an ugly old Greek.