[Air-L] the least-est generation

[Mark D. Johns]

Barry Wellman wrote:
> It is common for the public, policymakers and scholars in each generation
> to say "Things ain't what they used to be"...

"...you who are the father of letters, from a paternal love of your own 
children have been led to attribute to them a quality which they cannot 
have; for this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the 
learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories; they will 
trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. 
The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to 
reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the 
semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have 
learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally 
know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom 
without the reality."

Socrates, (as quoted in Plato's Phaedrus, ca. 370 B.C.E.) complaining 
about how the new media of the day (the syllabic alphabet and papyrus) 
were screwing up the younger generation. This discourse has been going 
on a long time.
-- 
Mark D. Johns, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Head of the
  Department of Communication Studies
Luther College, Decorah, Iowa USA
http://academic.luther.edu/~johnsmar/
-----------------------------------------------
"Get the facts first. You can distort them later."
     ---Mark Twain