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From: berman@ihuxm.UUCP (thomas)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: What Studs Says About The Net
Message-ID: <964@ihuxm.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 18-Apr-84 13:48:15 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxm.964
Posted: Wed Apr 18 13:48:15 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 19-Apr-84 04:25:14 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 38


Studs Terkel, historian, author ("Working", "Division St. USA", etc)
was the subject of a recent discussion on the net, in net.politics.
In a newspaper interview he had made some crack to the effect that
the only constituency that Reagan has these days is the young professional
with rimless glasses who works with computers and has the mindlessness
of a zombie.  I posted Studs' remarks and invited comment.

A whole lot came, some refuting Studs' position ("just because I'm
a computer enthusiast doesn't mean I'd vote for Ray-Gun"), but alas also
many that seemed to proved his point.

I sent the lot to Studs, along with a note explaining what the net was
(and editorializing that it could be a new technology for democracy if
someday the common folk get access). Studs wrote back. Herein are some
of his remarks:

    "Thanks for the comments. I do apologize for the rimless glasses
     crack. I found several of the replies thoughtful and encouraging.
     The great many, however, made my point. They were worse than even
     I suspected.   Their smugness and mindlessness scares me..."

Looking over the submissions lately, I have to agree that the degree
of smugness is phenomenal. It has to do, in part, I believe, with the
relative anonymity of the net (akin to CB radio). There has also got
to be some correlation with the fact that people with access to the
net are in an area of the economy that isn't hurting much overall.
The visceral denunciations of trade unions has got to reflect the relatively
well off status of the enunciators.

But the fact that many folks in our constituency are pretty conservative
ought not be discouraging. A lot of folks are also pretty open-minded.
Computer people are in a key position in society, and I don't
think it's predetermined that our role is necessarily one of promotion
of elitist ideology.


                 Andy Berman