From: Spike Jones (spike66@attglobal.net)
Date: Tue Jul 03 2001 - 23:20:12 MDT
Lee Corbin wrote:
> One of the best effects of the technical revolution, at
> least here in California, has been the way that achievement
> in school has been transformed into something naturally
> admired by huge numbers of kids. Lee Corbin
Lee, I couldn't have said it better. This seems like the
biggest change from when I was growing up. In those
times there seemed to be an *active* anti-intellectualism,
or rather an anti-technology feeling, perhaps having
something to do with the conflict in Vietnam.
I have pondered this and welcome any comments on the
topic. Recall the protest movement at Kent State U with
the shootings, etc. Along with the reviled ROTCs, the
engineering students were treated with distrust, for many
of them had short hair and tended to lean to the right.
One of the incidents that led to the National Guard being
called onto the campus was a fire in an engineering research
facility. The research was secret so the protest leaders
managed to convince the proletariat that what was going
on in that building was the development of special crystals
that were surreptiously placed on the clothing of Che Guevara
to track his movements. Quote from a broadside:
"Liquid crystals are extremely sensitive to heat, and are used in
devices to detect campfires in jungle areas and in some cases
to detect body heat at long range. The "sniffer" is currently
used in Vietnam and a similar device was used in Bolivia to
track and kill Che Guevara. A struggle has begun and will
continue on Kent's campus - the development of liquid
crystals must be stopped."
Fortunately the young radicals were unsuccessful. If you
are using a laptop you are looking at the results of that research
right now. I think part of the resentment towards techies in
the early 70s may have been misguided luddite notions. spike
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