Now my momma and papa taught me to be always respectful of my elders and even if I am a cranky old fart Doris Lessing makes me look like a pup in the long grass chasing my tail; which under normal circumstances might be fun but according to her people like me are destroying our very culture.

Yes that is right - according to her Nobel Prize acceptance speech; which had to be read by a stand in because she is too old and apparently ill to make the trip, us bloggers in general and computers en masse are as pointed out by Shelley Powers in her post on the speech:

Now it is a new era and new inventions, chief among them the internet and the web, and seemingly from Ms. Lessing’s comments, weblogs. All three are being blamed for everything from the lack of interest in education, to the lack of respect for the written word.

As Ms Powers goes on to correctly show though this is all in the face of Amazon making lots of profits from selling books right through to things like the Gutenberg Project. If anything the internet and blogs have made the written word; whether it be on paper or electronically, even more powerful.

As Duncan Riley points out in his post on TechCrunch where he compares Doris Lessing to Andrew Keen:

Whilst Lessing’s words should be taken somewhat in context: the ditherings of an ignorant old woman, Keensian (as in Andrew Keen) anti-internet speeches grow as the cultural elite in society continue to have their previous (often born-in-to) positions eroded. The likes of Andrew Keen and Doris Lessing ignore the many benefits the internet has provided in expanding access to knowledge to many, many more people than who may otherwise have had no access before. Whilst it may be easy to mock the utterances of hundreds of millions of bloggers and social networking site users, the 21st century will be remembered as the time that communication was democratized, a time where the power of a few was replaced by the power of many.

While my upbringing may cause me to defer some respect to Ms Lessing because of her age and incredible life of rich experiences I sure as hell hope that when I reach that doddering old age I maintain some self-respect and know when to shut up when subjects I know nothing about happen around me.

Ms. Lessing might have won the Nobel Prize for Literature but she also won the Homer DUH! prize for understand what technology has given to our global society.

Listening to: Shpongle - Nothing Lasts - Botanical Dimensions

Conversation Tags: technology, Nobel Prize, Literature, Doris Lessing