The Screen: Red’s First Dialogue

Socrates: Hello Red. Could you tell me about the Screen, through which your society perceives the environment beyond their senses? I notice it comes in several formats, but the content appears the same: providing the reader with information related to their lives and communities. Is this correct?

Red: Yeah. The ever-present Screen. Everybody has several. On their desks, in their pockets, even on their wrists. For informed citizens, the Screens contain the news, which updates the events of the day — mainly a mixture of politics, business, sports and entertainment.

Socrates: News? What an odd word. Is that the plural of new?

Red: Yes, I suppose it is. It’s a bunch of stories.

Socrates: Stories? Is this drama?

Red: Hmmm. Come to think of it, the ones that capture my attention tend to be dramatic.

Socrates: Does everyone get the same news?

Red: No. We live in democracies, free and open societies where we can choose our sources.

Socrates: So democracy means that two people can see completely different versions of reality?

Red: Not really. You select specialty outlets for your interests. But every major one interprets the same events. Most people choose a couple that they trust, which informs how they vote.

Socrates: But who decides what is major news? What kind of change is important enough that everyone in the state should know about it?

Red: Most is based on actions and statements by public officials, particularly politicians in the government and legislature. The more powerful the position, the more newsworthy. The chroniclers who write the stories are called journalists. Their managers, called editors, decide the importance of a story.

Socrates: Your officials must be busy if they require daily bulletins. What are they changing?

Red: Actually things are pretty stable today — been that way for my lifetime. Most of the news is about the performance of elected politicians. Their long-term objectives for the common good and reaction to crises like natural disasters. Stuff like that. Generally these are presented as debates between two ideological groups, conservatives and liberals.

Socrates: Does any of this news impact how you go about your daily life?

Red: Come to think of it, rarely. But it gives me awareness about the world and my place in it. And of course informs how I vote. You know…democracies require informed citizens.

Socrates: So let me see if I have this correct. You perceive reality beyond your senses via a Screen that contains dramatic stories. They claim to chronicle change, but just narrate debates about how elected officials manage your laws. And then you decide how to vote based on these debate-stories? Sounds like your democracy is filtered through gossip about shadows dancing on a cave wall.

Red: Well, if you put it like that….

Socrates: Yet this gossip isn’t oral? I believe you said it is transmitted through writing.

Red: Well, there is television and radio, but you need to read quality newspapers and magazines to get the full picture.

Socrates: What is television and radio?

Red: They’re like your shadows in the cave. For anyone serious, the Screen communicates via writing, which gives us time to contemplate what it means.

Socrates: Interesting. I watched writing seduce the minds of our elites.

Red: You have a problem with writing?

Socrates: Here’s a parable I liked to tell students who asked why I never wrote anything down. The Egyptian God Ammon is speaking to his deputy Thoth, the inventor of writing:

“This discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality.”

Red: But writing is everything. If you are illiterate today, you are doomed.

Socrates: Hah! It looks like that ambitious Thoth has taken over! Is writing now your top God?

Red: Of course not! Western religion is monotheistic. Those who do believe, believe there is only one God…

Socrates: Impressive, very impressive. Thoth has eliminated his rivals and now simply goes by the name God. I shouldn’t be surprised. Thoth always was clever and deceitful, hiding his intentions behind the frozen hand of dead letters. Or is it the dead hand of frozen letters? I suppose it could be both, couldn’t it?

Red: Not at all….well, wait a second…hold on….

Socrates: You look distressed.

Red: Um. There’s this famous passage in the Bible. I believe it goes like this: “In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God…”

Socrates: Indeed! Sounds to me like the word is still with Thoth…we have arrived at the end of the bridge — or perhaps the beginning. I can see Percy waiting for you. We will depart company here. Thank you for the enlightening discussion.

Red: Yeah. Sure. Um…glad I could answer some of your questions…I think…