Internet & social control

[pynchonoid]

[...] What has steadily, insidiously improved since
then, of course, making humanist arguments almost
irrelevant, is the technology. We must not be too
distracted by the clunkiness of the means of
surveillance current in Winston Smith's era. In "our"
1984, after all, the integrated circuit chip was less
than a decade old, and almost embarrassingly primitive
next to the wonders of computer technology circa 2003,
most notably the internet, a development that promises
social control on a scale those quaint old
20th-century tyrants with their goofy moustaches could
only dream about. [...] 
-Thomas Pynchon, Foreword to _1984_


--- pynchonoid <pynchonoid at yahoo.com> wrote:
> No, three facts -- the Internet's tainted roots from
> its Cold War paranoia and M.A.D. origins; current
> use
> of the Internet by governments and corporations; the
> Internet's potential for further abuse -- support
> Pynchon's statement in the Foreword to _1984_. 


I'm curious.  Of those folks here who don't agree with
Pynchon's statement about the Internet in the Foreword
to _1984_, how do you support the argument that
Pynchon's wrong? I've read a lot of personal attacks
here, on me and on Pynchon, but I've yet to see
anybody make a good case that the Internet does NOT
promise "social control on a scale those quaint old
20th-century tyrants with their goofy moustaches could
only dream about."





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<http://www.pynchonoid.org/>

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