21) The Internet - The opportunity for the small, talented individual! Written by Rainer: rainer.lehrer@yahoo.com Learn languages (via Skype): Rainer: + 36 20 549 52 97 or + 36 20 334 79 74

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The Internet - The opportunity for the small, talented individual! We are in the democratic Athens before our times and attend a monthly meeting. Everyone who has something to say prepares for his performance and the most interesting and best-delivered speech receives the greatest applause. Many agree with it and then it comes to a vote. The best speaker had convinced many and put them on his side. This is called basic democracy today. The state was still rather weakly organized and the surrounding city-states and countries had kings or other, smaller, leading groups. How could this small minority keep their freedom anyway? By loving it, the priceless freedom. Of course, it didn't last long. Above all, because some big shouters had too much influence. It was the first try and the result was not the most successful, but it was incredibly cute. Then, the Romans came, who on their way to greatness had forgotten their old ideals of freedom and republic. The freedom-loving and educated Greek was sacrificed on the altar of state interest and community, from which of course only a few benefited. The Middle Ages were worse. The barbarian rulers, supported by the life-negating church dogmatism and their well-organized institutions, suppressed everything what at that time resembled to free will. Only the French Revolution gave the impression that something had moved on in mankind and that the people wanted to throw off their yoke, just to submit immediately to a Napoleon. But the spark had lit the fire. Gutenberg's invention had already made it possible for Protestantism to break through. Before the powerful realized the power of disseminating information and tried to either suppress it or put it into their own service, it had slipped through their fingers. Slowly, people were demanding more and more independence and individual freedom. But again and again the state, their dictators and henchmen managed to bring the new ways of disseminating information, which we now call "media", under their control, albeit not finally. Hitler and Goebbels used it almost to perfection as an instrument of popular stupefaction. And what does it all look like today? There are monopoly companies that determine what we should hear or see. These arise from state interference and laws such as copyright law. This does not protect the writer (as in literature, for example), because an author usually only gets "a sandwich and an egg" for his work anyway, but the editors who claim the right of publishing. And now suddenly, out of the blue, the Internet has come and with it various service providers, which make it possible for the small, talented individual to publish everything she or he thinks is of value. Of course, there is a lot of waste and rejects, and Szerb Antal says in his book "A világ irodalom története" (history of world literature) that the quality of art would worsen if it were no longer determined by a small elite, but accessible to the general public. However, I am convinced that the people do not need an elite to tell them what is of value or bad. Common people will continue to improve their knowledge and can decide for themselves. The Internet is this opportunity for small people to finally become independent. Back to list!

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