Clay Shirky, someone who everyone should be reading, has another good article about Newspapers, the internet, revolution, etc.

Here’s a snipped I quite liked where he’s talking about the Press revolution (as described by Elizabeth Eisenstein:

“How did we get from the world before the printing press to the world after it? What was the revolution itself like?”

Chaotic, as it turns out. The Bible was translated into local languages; was this an educational boon or the work of the devil? Erotic novels appeared, prompting the same set of questions. Copies of Aristotle and Galen circulated widely, but direct encounter with the relevant texts revealed that the two sources clashed, tarnishing faith in the Ancients. As novelty spread, old institutions seemed exhausted while new ones seemed untrustworthy; as a result, people almost literally didn’t know what to think. If you can’t trust Aristotle, who can you trust?

This is about halfway down in his post, but I think it’s a good parralel to our current situation, which is what the majority of his article is about. This discussion isn’t really confined to newspapers, though “the news” has certianly been in “the news” a lot lately. As he continues:

And so it is today. When someone demands to know how we are going to replace newspapers, they are really demanding to be told that we are not living through a revolution. They are demanding to be told that old systems won’t break before new systems are in place. They are demanding to be told that ancient social bargains aren’t in peril, that core institutions will be spared, that new methods of spreading information will improve previous practice rather than upending it. They are demanding to be lied to.

Personally I’m glad that my plan is to go into education, because I think it is one “industry” that will always be needed – and it has a responsibility to evolve with the times that many educators are aware of – instead of denying. At least, the best ones.

(as a side note, check out the amazing number of pingbacks [reposts/links] under the post – 400 in 4 days. Are pingbacks a reliable measure of social importance?)