Connectivity the new Social Status

I think today I will go in a completely different direction than some sort of political rant.

Today I read a profound statement and made me draw a hypothesis; Social Status is slowly becoming determined by connectivity, access to communication technology, rather than material wealth. When I speak of social status I mean the honor or prestige attached to one’s position in society. My thought has raised questions, such as why is connectivity influencing social status? What is so unique about connectivity that it can influence one’s social status?

One of the things I see as unique about connectivity is the ability to access information as well as disseminate it. Often information has been described as power, those who posses it have power over those who do not. Those who control access to information have the greatest amount of power, the gate-keepers can allow and deny anyone access to knowledge. In this respect connectivity has a profound impact on society as a whole, and gives the control a great deal of prestige in society. Simply having access to connectivity is not enough to change your social status, one must be able to utilize it, and if you are unable to utilize it you might as well not have access to it.

Why is connectivity becoming so important? I see it as becoming important because our world is becoming smaller with respect to the speed information travels. 71 days ago in Chile miners were trapped underground, yesterday and today we watched live as they were pulled out of the ground. I was so connected in such a way I could chose what language I heard as the miners were rescued. What in the not so distant past I would have had to wait at least a day to see the recorded images, today very little stops me from seeing actions as they occur on the other side of the world. I was only the receiving side of this access, I can also be on the giving side, If I am able to access and use communication I can send to you my reader my ideas. Ideas that I hope you go forth and discuss with your friends and turn some of ideas into a meme.

If social status is being determined by connectivity do we risk another Victorian Era, where connectivity is concentrated in the hands of a few and the rest must fight for what is left? Or do you think I am off my mark, do you think that connectivity is never going to influence social status; connectivity is not a part of social stratification? Tell me what you think, talk with your friends, your spouse your kids and your co-workers lets communicate and see what the world thinks?

Pandemic of Stupid

In just a few days America will get to carry out a bloodless coup, and then we will see how bad this pandemic will be. It feels to me this year in particular has more than its fair share of stupid people running for office, including some not running for office but saying stupid things. What seems to appeal to the Republican base, more specifically to the Tea Party, is this whole anti-intellectual, anti-elitism strain of politician. The base of the GOP is nominating people who are simply stupid, and this year it is a bumper crop of stupid. It seems to me that if a political party relies on a base composed of anti-intellectuals, is seems to track that soon those same people will try their hand at governance. Sarah Palin, Christine O’Donnell and Michelle Bachman have tried to corner the market with their stupid anti-intellectual gibberish, O’Donnell trying hard to shed her witch image by making commercials saying she is one of the voters. The Republican party is soon to find itself in a no win situation, with the way their primaries are going lately the only people able to run through the Republican gantlet are Tea Party members who try and out stupid each other in order to Identify with the lowest common denominator. Soon we will see how easy it is to win in the Republican primary, but how hard it is to win in a general election. I do not think that most of the Tea Party candidates will lose because of their conservative stance. Everyone is entitled to their own ideology, rather I think they will lose because deep down inside most voters realize being a politician is not an easy job, and it is not one that should be so casually given to anyone who is stupid and demonstrates their stupidity time and time again. So let’s hope that the smart people prevail in November so we can move past this Tea Party with no hangovers and next morning regrets.

Send in the Clowns

Brazil went to the polls on Sunday and elected a clown, Tiriricia, to congress with 1.3million votes. He won with the most votes of any candidate with the slogan “it cannot get any worse.” Tiriricia admitted that he does not know what a congress man does, but promised to report back what they do. Maybe Brazil’s electorate chose to reward honesty, which politicians are often derided for not possessing, by voting for Tiriticia. The question is could Brazilians have done worse? I think they could have, had they embraced the American style of Political Clown.

The American Political Clown is today embodied by the Tea Party candidates. Christen O’Donnell is such an easy target from her position on masturbation, to the latest ad where she tells her viewers she is not a witch. Sarah Palin is also another easy target for all of her clown like statements like Death Panels. Also Joe Miller, one of Palin’s minions. Miller believes that every bill must cite where in the Constitution grants the federal government the right to make that statue. Miller’s political philosophy is the one that everything the federal government undertakes is somehow unconstitutional, like the Health Care reform. Miller chose to ignore the parts of the Constitution, the clause that calls for congress to insure the general welfare of the people, and the necessary and proper clause. Miller must think each is independent and works in a vacuum from each other. Like Tiriricia, Miller really has no idea how congress works or what a congressman does, but he does believe he should be the benefit of its welfare in the form of farm subsidies and a congressional paycheck.

The group of politicos currently in office is not much better, and still seem to know less about what is going on in congress than any other ordinary citizen. The Republicans in congress have made a Pledge to America, that is nothing more than a rehash of the Contract with America that sweep Republicans into office in 1994. This time short on specifics, but long on denouncements, the pledge bashes deficits but wants to extend the Bush taxes. Extending the tax cuts would drive up the deficit another 4 trillion dollars over the ten year period, and would have nothing to show for it, no roads, no bridges, even the ones to nowhere, nothing but a whole in the budget. This crew panders to those who somehow think that you can increase revenues by cutting off your source of income and starve the rest of the government to death.

So yes Tiriricia, it could get worse, Brazil could be saddled with Americas Clowns and that would be much worse for everyone. By the way Tiriricia, if you are reading this, I have a friend who can help you with your illiteracy all you have to do is send him five US dollars and he will write you back on how to beat illiteracy. But do not worry, must members of congress do not read the proposed Legislation here anyway, given more than a year and they cannot finish a 1000 page doubled spaced printed in a font for the hard of seeing, and still manage to claim it was shoved down our throats.