I often get flak for claiming that problems in the IT industry are part and parcel of social problems at large. I made this argument most recently in the editorial Lenin, Trotsky, and the Freedom from the Tyranny of Knowledge and Reason, in which I related the atrocious state of technology and discourse on database management on the society rewarding experience, intuition and tools, and dismissing and/or punishing knowledge and reason. I stated “The IT industry is but a component of society and operates within the same culture. At its own level, the same mechanism is operating.”

 

A while ago I came across a Daily Show taped episode on Comedy Central, Conventional Wisdom, where Jon Stewart looks at how the repetition of "talking points" shapes public perception of candidates. “Talking points,” he says, “they’re true, because they’re said a lot”.

 

Now, of course, for this to work, you gotta have a target audience lacking knowledge and critical faculties e.g.

 

Their general rap on Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, a decorated Navy veteran of Vietnam, was that Kerry didn't deserve his Silver Star, or his Bronze Star, or his three Purple Hearts; that these decorations were somehow obtained by political calculation. "He was just planning to run for president, right from the beginning, that's what I think," said Margaret Leonie Dent, the wife of a Navy retiree. "They say his wounds were paper cuts. Just look at the man. He looks French for God's sake."

--Paul Vitello, Bush is Number 1 in Navy Town, Newsday.com

 

and nobody to counter the mantra of talking points. Sounds familiar?

 

Well, today I received the following from a reader:

 

Your latest set of quotes from the XML pundits proves that these folks share the worldview of the current US government administration:  say something enough times and that will make it so. 

 

I rest my case.

 

 

Posted 08/06/04