Feb 8 Awake! Slags off Internet

Stephanus

P31 at the back has another go at the internet. It also takes a swipe at other sources of info - other than them, of course!

TR

Goverments and companies tell half truths? LOL! How about lyin-assed false-prophetic religions!

I just love seeing the WTS pull this crap! Like nobody knows they do the same thing.

TR

So, who are we to get an accurate picture from? The buffoons at the WT Society? They who cannot make up their mind whether to predict a date or not? They who cannot make up their mind what parts of blood can be accepted, because it keeps changing? They who cannot decide what level of involvement with the United Nations is acceptable, whether to be a NGO (Non Governmental Organization) affiliated with the U.N. or not? They who muddle up criminal investigations into child molestation cases by poking their noses into it and putting the victims on trial?

Yeah sure. They're the most accurate information source.

A Paduan

Spotted the clincher straight away - "know where to click your mouse"

Safeness would rather be found by - "read very widely and you will be easily able to tell what is incorrect or misleading"

Anyone recognise the sound of their good shepherd in that page? I know I didn't.

Edited by - a paduan on 4 February 2003 20:14:1

freedom96

Thank God that there are many intelligent posters here, who have facts to back up what they say about the WTS. So, all those wanting real, hard core evidence/ information, feel free to look up the thousands of postings here regarding the WTS, and learn!

logansrun

Yeah, like the JWs don't tell "half truths." What about this one:

Q-"Do JWs believe they are the only ones who will get saved?"

A-"No...."

Please!

Bradley

Bendrr

And The Empire moves one step closer to a ban on internet use.

Oops, did I say ban? Dang! I've been out too long and my "pure language" has atrophied.

Hmmmm.....Ok!

"Internet access is of course a matter of conscience but due to the dangers easily found online such as pornography and apostacy many mature Witnesses have decided not to have internet access in their homes."

I wouldn't put it past them to start withholding "priveleges" from those who have net access.

Mike.

JH

Here they go again. Another subliminal message. If you are too often on the computer, you will need glasses.

Kenneson

"Is there a way to get information that can be trusted?"

Yes, but NOT from Watchtower literature!

VM44

World Wide Web Edition June 2002 Volume 15, Number 6

"Global Village Idiocy" and the Community College
Thomas L. Friedman International Affairs Columnist,
The New York Times

During a dinner with Indonesian journalists in Jakarta, I was taken aback when Dini Djalal, a reporter for The Far Eastern Economic Review, suddenly launched into a blistering criticism of the Fox News Channel and Bill O'Reilly. On Fox, said Ms. Djalal, "They say, 'We report, you decide,' but it's biasedthey decide before us. They say there is no spin, but I get dizzy looking at it. I also get upset when they invite on Muslims and just insult them."

Why didn't she just not watch Fox when she came to America, I wondered? No, no, no, explained Ms. Djalal: The Fox Channel is now part of her Jakarta cable package. The conservative Bill O'Reilly is in her face every night.

Information at Their Fingertips, But Out of Context

On my way to Jakarta I stopped in Dubai, where I watched the Arab News Network (ANN) at 2 a.m. ANN broadcasts from Europe, outside the control of any Arab government, but is seen all over the Middle East. It was running what I'd call the "greatest hits" from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: nonstop film of Israelis hitting, beating, dragging, clubbing, and shooting Palestinians. I would like to say the footage was out of context, but there was no context. There were no words. It was just pictures and martial music designed to inflame passions.

An Indonesian working for the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, who had just visited the Islamic fundamentalist stronghold of Jogjakarta, told me this story: "For the first time I saw signs on the streets there saying things like, 'The only solution to the Arab-Israel conflict is jihadif you are true Muslim, register yourself to be a volunteer.' I heard people saying, 'We have to do something, otherwise the Christians or Jewish will kill us.'

"When we talked to people to find out where [they got these ideas], they said from the Internet. They took for granted that anything they learned from the Internet is true. They believed in a Jewish conspiracy, and that 4,000 Jews were warned not to come to work at the World Trade Center [on September 11]. It was on the Internet."

What's frightening him, he added, is that there is an insidious Digital Divide in Jogjakarta.

"Internet users are only 5 percent of the population. But these 5 percent spread rumors to everyone else. They say, 'He got it from the Internet.' They think it's the Bible."

The Danger of an Open Sewer

If there's one thing I learned from this trip to Israel, Jordan, Dubai, and Indonesia, it's that thanks to the Internet and satellite TV, the world is being wired together technologically, but not socially, politically, or culturally. We are now seeing and hearing one another faster and better, but with no corresponding improvement in our ability to learn from, or understand, one another. So integration, at this stage, is producing more anger than anything else. As the writer George Packer recently noted in The New York Times Magazine, "In some ways, global satellite TV and Internet access have actually made the world a less understanding, less tolerant place."

At its best, the Internet can educate more people faster than any media tool we've ever had. At its worst, it can make people dumber faster than any media tool we've ever had. The lie that 4,000 Jews were warned not to go into the World Trade Center on September 11 was spread entirely over the Internet and is now thoroughly believed in the Muslim world. Because the Internet has an aura of "technology" surrounding it, the uneducated believe information from it even more. They don't realize that the Internet, at its ugliest, is just an open sewer: an electronic conduit for untreated, unfiltered information.

Worse, just when you might have thought you were all alone with your extreme views, the Internet puts you together with a community of people from around the world who hate all the things and people you do. You can scrap the BBC and just get your news from those websites that reinforce your own stereotypes.

A couple of years ago, two Filipino college graduates spread the "I Love You" virus over the Internet, causing billions of dollars in damage to computers and software. But at least that virus was curable with the right software. There is another virus going around today, though, that's much more serious. I call it the "I Hate You" virus. It's spread on the Internet and by satellite TV. It infects people's minds with the most vile ideas, and it can't be combated by just downloading a software program. It can be reversed only with education, exchanges, diplomacy, and human interaction stuff you have to upload the old-fashioned way, one on one.
Let's hope it's not too late.

Editor's Note: In a dialogue with Thomas L. Friedman after publication of this article in The New York Times , the author expressed extreme interest in supporting the role of the community college in combating the challenges he outlines. Friedman urged us to add comments that would more directly bring this discussion into the community college context. The comments that follow are from League President Mark David Milliron:

All Learning is Global

As the "Global Village" deals with the good, the bad, and the ugly of the connected world outlined by Friedman, institutions like community colleges are crucial. Community-based adult learning institutions must see it as their mission not only to use their instructional programs to speed the steady stream of technology and media, but to get people ready for the information that floods their way because of it. With the open sewer flowing, it's clear that teaching people basic habits of mindcritical thinking, problem solving, synthesis, analysis, and understanding contextis more important than teaching people how to get online. In fact, teaching the latter without the former is a recipe for disaster.

More important, based on what we're seeing in the Middle East today, community colleges must also begin preparing people not only to access the connected world, but to effect meaningful interaction with the people at the other end of those connections. Getting along with people from different backgrounds, taking the time to see the world from another person's perspective, breaking out of the narrow mindsets that often accompany lack of education and povertythese are the skills that can help us bridge the gap between what Friedman calls "the Lexus and the Olive Tree," the gap between the new and modern world and the old and traditional world of beliefs, culture, and lifestyle.

I know that your values as community college educators compel you to this kind of challenge. And, in this case, the stakes couldn't be higher. We can't afford to forget for a moment that in this connected world, all learning is global.

Thomas Friedman is International Affairs Columnist for TheNew York Times and the author of The Lexus and Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization. He can be reached at [email protected]. For ordering information on The Lexus and the Olive Tree, click here. Mark David Milliron is the President and CEO of the League for Innovation in the Community College. He can be reached at [email protected]. Article reprinted with permission from the May 12, 2002 The New York Times.