I just finished reading something I do not expect to find, a politically balanced article. No, really, I did and it is, hat tip to RealClearPolicy for the link.
Author Kevin Dorst truly does seem to be able to understand the world view of both of our politically/ideologically polarized red vs. blue, right vs. left camps. See his article at Arc Digital.
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The main quibble I have with Dorst’s very even-handed discussion isn’t ideological. I don’t believe he assigns as much credit-or-blame to the Internet as it deserves.
While I love the Internet and am on it at all hours, it is clear to me that its everyman-a-publisher feature has been samizdat, on steroids. With an equally subversive effect on the status quo ante.
Instead of requiring investment in paper and ink, and then in distribution, all that’s needed is this generation’s version of the typewriter and you’re off to the races. Whatever you write and post is immediately available to - literally - the world; to everyone online who can read the language in which you wrote.
This has proved useful for ISIS and for quilters, for coin collectors and fitness addicts, for evangelists, devil worshipers and atheists, for the NRA, the Sierra Club and Donald Trump ... for everyone of every stripe and persuasion. Asynchronous gatherings of the like-minded occur, regardless of geographic distance or time zone.
I am reminded of a line of haunting song lyric:
What brings us together is what pulls us apart.
The Internet has been a quantum leap into the unknown, the consequences of which we are beginning to see unfold. The upsides are obvious, the downsides less so, but real nevertheless. Instead of emphasizing what we have in common, it emphasizes the ways in which we differ, what we only share with some.
