Article

2009-03-06 Southeast Asia

Internet influential in spread of Asian Islamism

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Posted by ryuge 2009-03-06 07:28|| || Front Page|| [7 views ] Top

#1 Why does this surprise anyone? All media are used for political purposes, propaganda and trouble making. Pamphleteers did it and so did newspapers. Before mass media there were balladeers and minstrels that went from place to place singing their political views, overtly or subtly. Shakespeare and other playwrights always pushed a certain view of the political facts of life. Internet is new and exciting. Using it for political ends is almost a natural evolution of the tool for disseminating information to many people. Moreover, it is hard to censor and the engineers are sometimes cleverer than the censors. The part of internet that provides a modicum of accurate information, history and geography and truly up-to-date reporting should not be censored by special groups, religious, political, commercial or otherwise, unless the reasons themselves are unbiased and are urgent. To paraphrase Marshall McCluhan who worked prior to internet, INTERNET has become the political and religious message. Obama's insistence on a Blackberry is as good an example of the internet's importance, as any. Internet is instrumental in all the functioning of society at this moment. Education, Health, Welfare, Religion, Commerce and Government all depend heavily on it. At this moment it is truly indispensable in the daily lives of just about everyone. Some of my contemporaries are afraid of it or afraid of not knowing how to get into it. The children of the world are now better at using computers as I was at getting SW radio stations as a kid, before TV, of course. The TV Generation is not the Internet Generation. Thanks for listening.

Posted by Izzy Sommers, MD">Izzy Sommers, MD 2009-03-06 15:05|| 2009-03-06 15:05|| Front Page Top

#2 Welcome, Dr. Izzy Sommers! A lovely first rant; I look forward to reading more of your thoughts on this site. Only one thing: you wrote, "the engineers are sometimes cleverer than the censors." I'd change that to always, with the caveat that whatever it is must catch an engineer's attention first. ;-)

Posted by trailing wife ">trailing wife 2009-03-06 23:14|| 2009-03-06 23:14|| Front Page Top

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