The Future of Literacy
Eco brings up a very interesting point towards the end of this essay about distributing books among Third World countries. The question is who decides what type of content these people will be reading. He also points out that three quarters of the world can not afford books. This means that there are a select few that have the power to distribute information and they are the ones who ultimately decide what these people are reading. This seems to be the reoccuring theme in a number of readings this quarter. Who has the right to decide the extent of the damage? Who decides whether stealing music from online is a serious crime? I can't even imagine the different scenarios of Third World individuals being fed political information, thinking they are receiving gifts in the form of reading material. This leaves three quarters of the world population to potentially take up communist beliefs, or three quarters of the world population to believe that there were nuclear war heads in Iraq. My point is that their should be some type of regulations on the material these countries receive. They are individuals just like us, and should ultimately decide what they'd like to read.
posted by RayJ at 4:03 PM
7 Comments:
I understand what Ray is saying. Who will regulate what these Third World countries will receive? Will they just be given the books that are in surplus, or that seem to be doing the worst on 'best sellers' lists? If so, they may end up with information completely irrelevant and useless to them, and that doesn't seem to make giving the books worth it.
Um, I guess it would be nice to distribute books to Third World Countries... but here's the thing. One short essay isn't going to make any difference on who gets what books. Take Americans for example. We're lazy, and most people aren't going to jump into a project that isn't going to benefit themselves. We're selfish and have a lack of initiative. However, if more people supported this idea, maybe something can actually happen. I'm tired of hearing about things that COULD happen instead of things that WILL happen.
After we decide what kind of books to give the third world, there is also the problem of giving them the historically accurate book. For example, if you decide to give them books about science, people will be up in arms if you give them books that dont include the idea of "intelligent design" or whatever they are calling it these days. If you want to give them a history book, from which point of view will the history be told?
I agree that this is an unfortunate situation for third world countries. However, I feel like the luxury of reading books is unimportant when it comes to these countries. It is definitely scary though to think about how heavily influenced the people in third world countries are.
I agree with you Ray on who are these one fourth deciding what other people should read. I love knowing I can walk into any bookstore, obtain any book or magazine I want and read it as many times as I want. I agree that there should be regulation among these countries and that they should get to decide what they do.
I also love the idea of Plato and how everyone has to write things down to remember it because that is so true. I make a list everyday and all day of things I have to do and I keep adding to it as I think of something, because if I didn't write it down, I would never remember it.
It is weird to think that we have complete control over what people in third world countries are reading. This makes it very easy for them to only get one side of an arguement or a story. I know they don't have the moeny to buy books but they should have more of a say in what they read. ray's post is still horrible.
I thought this article was pretty interesting becuase it made me think about who controls what we read. I mean we're definitely better off than third world countries, but I'm sure there are plenty of books that are not allowed to be published in the US and if they are they're probably not well known. Either way this article made me think more about how the third world countries do get one side of the argument and also how we might sometimes too.
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