Power to Words

After resisting the press because it opened the way for "heretical" ideas to be widely distributed, the Catholic Church began to make use of the medium to discover new works which helped to create a common doctrine. They took up the sword in a literary sense in publishing THE INDEX, which identified "heretical" works.

This new power to communicate prompted the Church to put pressure on printers to refuse to print unacceptable material. It brings to my mind some questions about what efforts may be undertaken by present power structures to limit the amount and nature of content on the Internet by placing restrictions via economic pressure or monopoly. Presently, we hear a lot about the egalitarian nature of the Net, but what will develop in the years ahead as this new technology becomes a more dominant mode of communication (as it surely will)?

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