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Missile Defense

Russian military leaders have expressed concern about US plans for a national missile defense system. Will defense technology be limited by possibilities for a strategic imbalance? Is this just SDI all over again?

rshowalter - 06:50am Apr 6, 2001 EST (#2030 of 2031)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

In the hope that some of Putin's people read it, and think about it, I'm reproducing rshowalter 4/5/01 9:58am here, so it is "before the eyes" -- after commenting about it. Russia needs a free and responsible and honest press.

I believe that the most important thing that could possibly happen, in Russia, to bring Russia together, and into the world, would be for her to get one.

I believe that she could give the lead.

. Suppose that Russia required, as a part of the charter, that "major" (however defined) press outlets put the contents printed or broadcast into internet-searchable archives, which they might charge for, and routinely notified the parties discussed in articles or broadcasts, and gave them the option after the article or broadcast, to comment on what was said? With this comment also set out in internet-searchable archives?

Would this not be practical for her to do, and in her interest?

If this were done, I believe that the Russian press would rapidly become a leader in journalistic technique and decency, a standard for the whole world, and it could be done without censorship -- but with an institutional arrangement, now inexpensive enough to be practical, tending to long memory, clarity, and responsiblitity of all concerned.

And there could be, and should be, freedom for new press outlets to enter the market. With the freedom this mechanism would provide, I believe Russia could attract them.

And people could talk out their problems, at the levels of detail that a complex, multiply articulated culture needs as a practical matter. They could do so on a basis where truth rather than lies would have an advantage.

rshowalter - 07:08am Apr 6, 2001 EST (#2031 of 2031)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Here is rshowalter 4/5/01 9:58am with an additional comment:

Storage is getting very, very cheap: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/05/technology/05STORR.html In the Storage Race, Will Consumers Win? by MICHEL MARRIOTT

rshowalter 4/1/01 1:45pm

" The modern news genre has its origins in a sweeping but little-understood revolution at the turn of the (20th century) by figures like Joseph Pulitzer, Ivy Ledbetter Lee, and Woodrow Wilson, who helped to gut the liberal traditions of American democracy and replace them with a system of constitutional oligarchy based on news, the public-relations oriented corporation, and the activist presidency.

That revolution was based on usages that relied on limitations of human memory, and limitations on the human ability to handle complexity. With the internet, those limits can be radically extended, and the techniqus of the "culture of lying" can be placed under new, powerful, and entertaining pressure, in the public interest.

Not only would this change be in the public interest. It would be entertaining ! And with storage as cheap as it is now, manageable.

major social problems, and reasonable hopes for their solution, depend on how the press functions. rshowalter 4/1/01 8:14am

If mainstream journalism powers changed their procedures and policies only just a little, the penalties for bad faith an lying by politicians and "political operatives" might increase radically, quickly, entertainingly, and at low cost. rshowalter 4/1/01 12:56pm

The technology of the internet is making the techniques of opinion manipulation developed before WWI (and highly evolved since) much more vulnerable than they used to be, because many more words are available; content can be available, subject to very extensive crossreferencing over very extended times; and there is therefore much more possibility of getting issues considered to a level that permits closure.
rshowalter 4/1/01 12:54pm
rshowalter 4/1/01 12:59pm
rshowalter 4/1/01 1:07pm
rshowalter 4/1/01 1:09pm

What if subjects of stories were routinely notified, and denials or discussions were made available on the internet - archived as the articles were?

I think the change would be practical, would act to increase the power and reliability of journalism, and could be self supporting, or even a money-maker. rshowalter 4/2/01 8:39am

If Russia did this, she would assure herself a free press at home -- the most important thing Russia needs, I believe, and she'd have taken a huge step toward getting a fair press abroad.

Perhaps, rather than an "arms race" there could be a "truth race" -- at least among journalistic businesses -- if Russia took this higher standard, would not American papers feel pressure to follow suit?

Think what that would mean to peace, and prosperity in the world !

I can think of no more powerful gesture, showing good faith and integrity, tht Putin could possibly make, on any subject.

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