The Keyboard is mightier than the Pen

Two quotes, come to mind whilst writing this post, the first 'The pen is mightier than the sword', and with a little Internet research which informs me that this now famous saying which I am sure we have all heard at one time or other was coined by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in for his play Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy, 1839:

True, This! -

Beneath the rule of men entirely great,

The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold

The arch-enchanters wand! - itself a nothing! -

But taking sorcery from the master-hand

To paralyse the Caesars, and to strike

The loud earth breathless! - Take away the sword - States can be saved without it!

The pen may remain mightier than the sword, but what is mightier than the pen - the keyboard?

My second quote is 'don't believe everything you read in newspapers', not as famous as the first but possibly it now finds more resonance with more people than ever before.

Language and the spoken word existed before writing, which eventually emerging with the ability to apply knowledge to experience, and understanding or at least in theory, common sense and insight derived and descended. This was the path taken by mankind the rudimentary oral and now written communication that replaced the hoots and gestures used by our lower primate ancestors from whom we are descended.

As long as 25,000 - 30,000 years ago, we humans were painting beautiful pictures on the walls of caves, and whether these pictures were telling a 'story' or not we will never really know. However they were a part of the early stages on the road to modern communication's. 

It is a striking fact, that the letters which we take for granted today in the printed book, derived from the most part from handwriting in the last centuries of the Roman empire. Indeed found in the fragments of Latin messages, written by members of the garrison stationed on Hadrian's Wall in about AD 100, and visibly identical to the letters taught in Western European languages today.

Cherokee Indians

The magic of writing is then encapsulated in the achievement of the Cherokee Indians in early 19th century, seeing the many advantages that writing brings to the white Americans, they embrace it with a passion, only still to be fleeced by the white man.

Well I could go on more about the wondrous human innovation which is our ability to communicate with one another, both through speech and the written composition. However let us fast track through time and space and arrive back home in the 21st century. Where in the Western world newspapers carry and disseminate and broadcast the news to millions, but only just. Over the past decade, whilst newspaper circulation rose globally by between 6% help on by strong demand in developing places like India, in stark contrast we in the West have started to bin our tabloids. 

Throughout the Western heliosphere, people are giving up on newspapers and TV news, and now are keeping up with events in  profoundly different ways. Most strikingly demonstrated has been charge of ordinary people getting involved in compiling, sharing, filtering, discussing and distributing news. Blogs, shared on-line journals where people can post daily entries about their personal experiences, hobbies and the news have taken off big time. People everywhere are Twittering reporting and expressing news and views, the part this has played in the Arab uprisings must strike a raw nerve with the world ruling classes.

Social-networking on the Internet now helps people, find, discuss and share news, even make it. It is indeed a revolution in the making, a conduit that is now challenging the media elite. Not only is it challenging the old owners of print, but the establishment political parties of government can expect to feel the heat as like minded people start to find one another and organise, as indeed we have seen with the students and the new massive movement still building against the cuts.

The world of politics is being turned up-side down, a new movement is building over the Internet; and this new movement will not be dominated by any-one self-propeled celestial star, but by the majority in participation with one another. I also don't think that any one party on the left as currently engaged in garbing as many new members as they possibly can will dominate, for the new dynamics, the forces that cause motions of bodies to change and challenge the system have now themselves changed, there will be no room for the old sectarian makeovers and bowel movements of the past - I hope that comrades learn to give, take and work together, time will only tell but one thing we can be certain about, never again will it be 'the Sun that won it!" 

Tainted love and the rats that jump the Murdoch Ship

The resignation of Les Hinton, and following on from Rebekah Brooks is only the latest in the ever-widening crisis facing Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.

Brooks stepped down as chief executive officer of the News International UK, the publisher of the now-defunct News of the World, which she once edited. But whatever damage limitation was intended will be small in lower-case letters.  She is still expected to appear, along with Murdoch and his son, James, before a parliamentary select committee on Tuesday next to discuss and give evidence on the phone hacking scandal at the News of the World.

Hinton, who was head of News International (NI) from 1995 to 2007, stood down as chief executive officer of News Corporation's Dow Jones & Co. unit. His resignation statement gives the very impression that the rats are deserting the sinking ship.

"That I was ignorant of what apparently happened is irrelevant and in the circumstances I feel it is proper for me to resign from News Corp, and apologize to those hurt by the actions of News of the world."

And so in the run-up to the select committee, Murdoch has broken his silence, chocking on his wards in an interview with is own Wall Street Journal, he centred his remarks on the denunciation of Gordon Brown - made in response to the former prime minister's damning speech on July 13. Murdoch said that some MPs' comments were "total lies".

Well whatever old man Murdoch thinks of Gordon Brown and Parliamentarians in general is not worth the paper its writ-on. In his speech Brown accused News International of "lawbreaking often on an industrial scale, at its worst dependent on links with the British underworld." Murdoch's media "marched in step" with "members of the criminal underworld" and functioned as a "criminal-media nexus". 

I think it is very obvious that Brown has his own double-bitted axe to grind. Patrick Winter in the Guardian July 11 is more enlightened. He notes that two months before The Sun switched support to the Tories, and after revelations in the Guardian about phone hacking and mounting evidence of a News International cover-up, Brown started to agitate for a judicial inquiry. For at least a fortnight he was in discussion with the home secretary, Alan Johnson. Brown and Lord Mandelson held discussions with Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of the Guardian, to get clearer understanding of the scandal." 

One other very important point we should not overlook is that Murdock was very much a supporter of Blair in the warring escapades of  Brown's fractional fight for ownership of New Labour. In more more felicitous days Brown had no problem with Murdock and his vast empire. Brown has never forgot that it was the Sun that won it!"

As we head into the summer parliamentary holidays, and the silly season falls upon us, we can expect this to run on for some time to come, and let us be clear but not surprised that British journalism is reeking along with politicians and especially our police.

This now is the sorry tale of tantalizing tainted love; the sewer stinks as the rats turn on each other looking for an escape route, of course dealing with "Murdoch" means something entirely diffident than it does for the working class. And it is the responsibility of working people to put an end to the destructive anti-social activities of Murdock and his ilk. We cannot rely on anyone to do it for us, especially Ed Miliband and New Labour or blue if you prefer. And a newly re-invigorated Brown guided by personal hard feelings rather than opposition to the social forces represented by the likes of Murdoch, won't do a thing to rid us of these oligarchs.