It's a striking thought: just as wild horses must be guided and accustomed to interaction before serving alongside humans, perhaps we too undergo a shaping process before becoming fully integrated members of society. What shapes us most profoundly? Many point to culture as the bedrock determining our politics and governance. Yet, culture itself doesn't exist in a vacuum; it dances with technology.

Technological leaps, especially in how we communicate, constantly redraw our interactions with the world, subtly shifting our culture. Think about it: communication technologies are the channels through which information flows. And information is power. It directs our focus, shapes our view of reality, shows us what seems possible, and ultimately nudges how we act. Change the technology, you change the information flow. Change the flow, you change the culture. Change the culture, and the political landscape – the balance of power itself – begins to shift.

When Print Unbound the Word

Consider the invention of the printing press around the mid-15th century. Before Gutenberg, it's estimated that all the scribes in Europe produced maybe 12,000 books over 50 years. In the 50 years after the press, that number exploded to around 12 million. Suddenly, books became cheaper, information seeped into more homes, and ideas reached minds far and wide.

The consequences were earth-shattering. More Bibles fueled the fires of the Reformation. Pamphlets and flyers spread revolutionary ideas that powered the American and French Revolutions. Monarchs lost their heads, maps were redrawn, and the foundations of modern society and economy were laid. The sheer power of easily replicated text transformed the world.

The Rise of the Broadcast: Shaping Reality from Above

The next great wave came with electricity: the telegraph, radio, and television. These technologies bypassed the need for physical transport networks (like rail or sea) to move information quickly. For the first time, information could be broadcast simultaneously into nearly every home in a nation. This created the era of mass media that dominated the 20th century.

However, this power came with a different structure. Mass media operated top-down. Those who owned the broadcast infrastructure, often working with powerful corporations and institutions, could filter, frame, and package the information. As the US Commission on Freedom of the Press noted prophetically back in 1947, these mass communication agencies could promote or suppress thought, advance or hinder civilization, vulgarize humanity, or even endanger peace. They could magnify or minimize news, stir specific emotions, create blind spots, and push slogans.

While claiming to be objective information providers, mass media often acted as a gatekeeper, opening the flow for those with money or official permission. This allowed for an unprecedented level of shared worldview (a form of conformity), making it easier to promote ideologies favoring centralized control. As political scientist Michael Parenti observed, the media might not tell us exactly what to think, but they are incredibly successful at telling us what to think about. They set the agenda, highlighting some issues while ignoring or downplaying others, effectively organizing much of our political reality. It echoes George Orwell's chilling description in 1984 – the power to tear minds apart and reassemble them. The Nazis, for instance, masterfully used radio to gain acceptance for totalitarian rule, as propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels himself acknowledged. Psychologists Gordon Allport and Hadley Cantril, writing in 1935, called radio a revolutionary tool for social control, profoundly impacting people's mental horizons.

This filtered, top-down flow created a situation reminiscent of Plato's allegory of the cave. In the allegory, prisoners chained in a cave see only shadows projected on a wall, mistaking them for reality. Richard Weaver, in Ideas Have Consequences, suggested modern media acts like that wall, projecting its version of life. The prisoners' tragedy isn't just confinement, but their inability to perceive the truth beyond the flickering shadows – a powerful metaphor for how mediated realities can limit perception.

The Digital Floodgate: Everyone Gets a Voice

This is where the internet revolution enters the picture. It offers a potential escape route from that cave. Suddenly, the monopoly on information flow held by traditional media was shattered. If the printing press led to the spread of reading, the internet, as media theorist Andrei Miroshnichenko puts it, has led to the spread of authorship.

With personal computers and mobile devices, almost anyone can share their thoughts, observations, and discoveries with a potentially vast audience. When someone exposes corruption, sees through a lie, or highlights propaganda, they can share it. We gain the ability to potentially separate truth from falsehood ourselves and broadcast our findings. This decentralization of publishing power is revolutionary.

Will this explosion of authorship be as transformative as the printing press or mass media? Only time will tell. But, echoing Miroshnichenko, if history offers any guide, we might expect significant upheavals. Historically, when established powers lose their exclusive control over information, their authority often crumbles, leading to shifts in the social, political, and economic status quo. Society begins to shed its old skin.

The Double-Edged Sword: Liberation or Control?

The new information flows enabled by the internet aren't just destructive to old orders; they are constructive, opening up alternative ways for society to function. Ideas that might never have seen the light of day in the old, controlled media system – concerning everything from monetary systems and state-run services like education or healthcare, to the very structure of our political lives – can now circulate freely. This liberation of authorship fuels the creative destruction needed to prevent societal stagnation.

However, this very freedom threatens those who benefit from the old ways, those whose power relies on controlling the narrative. Consequently, we should anticipate increasing calls for censorship, often framed as necessary measures to combat "hate speech" or "misinformation." While these concerns can be valid issues in themselves, the labels can also serve as convenient justifications to suppress inconvenient truths or dissent, essentially trying to force us back into the cave to protect vested interests. The ability of ordinary people to publish threatens the carefully curated image of the powerful. As Gustave Le Bon, a keen observer of crowd psychology, noted, figures who wish to maintain prestige often avoid open debate and keep the admiring crowd at a distance.

Echoes of the Past, Choices for the Future

Attempts to restrict new communication technologies are not new. After the printing press emerged, European rulers enacted strict censorship laws, like the English Press Regulations of 1643 that targeted printers critical of the government. Yet, the printing press proved too powerful; its influence couldn't be fully contained by decrees. As Marshall McLuhan wrote, new technologies tend to permeate society until they reshape every institution.

But history provides parallels, not exact replicas. We cannot assume the internet revolution will automatically follow the same path toward liberation. If we remain passive and fail to vigorously defend freedom of expression against attempts at suppression, this time could be different. Those in power might learn to harness this new technological paradigm for their own ends. Instead of liberation, these powerful tools could become instruments of a pervasive, technocratic control far beyond what previous eras could imagine. The choice, and the vigilance required, rests with us.

References:

• McLuhan, Marshall. (1964). Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man.

  This foundational text explores how communication technologies themselves, regardless of their content, fundamentally alter human perception, social organization, and cultural experience. It directly supports the article's central theme that changes in communication technology are primary drivers of societal change ("the medium is the message").

• Lippmann, Walter. (1922). Public Opinion.

  Lippmann's classic work examines how citizens form ideas about the world beyond their direct experience, arguing that media creates "pictures in our heads" shaping our understanding of reality and political behavior. This aligns with the discussion of mass media's power to set agendas and filter information.

• Plato. The Republic, Book VII.

  Contains the "Allegory of the Cave," providing a philosophical metaphor for being trapped by limited perceptions and mistaking mediated illusions for reality. It underpins the argument about media potentially trapping audiences and the internet offering a means of potential "escape."