I agree with the book’s arguments that there is significant correlation, and causation, between the evolution of media and the evolution of human society. While in the beginning symbols and signs contributed to the expansion of human secular thought, writing and alphabets did the opposite. Until recently, written language has been exclusive, and in some parts of the world still is. The impact of this forced ignorance isn’t hard to see.
Signs and symbols were formed from necessity by the need to trade effectively. In the book it says, “…the tokens dealt with economic data; each token stood for one precise amount of a commodity” (Crowley, and Heyer ). Tokens allowed people to trade without carrying their wares and without a need for spoken language. With simple tokens to represent quantities and types of goods it is easy to imagine how trade became more prevalent. This new means of communication however had some drawbacks, one being that it was difficult to trade larger quantities of goods because of the amount of clay you would have to carry around, this led to pictographs displayed on clay tablets, which in turn let to phonetic writing as we know it today.
The first forms of phonetic language were made on clay tablets. As trade increased over long distances this was soon replaced with papyrus and bark paper (Crowley, and Heyer ). While this form of communication grew, scribes were needed to write and read it, considering there were no public school or free education in that time. These scribes were taught in temples by priests and in turn, “… the power of the cult enhanced the power and authority of the priests” (Crowley, and Heyer ). Putting a monopoly of knowledge in religion allowed it to censor the information and made it more powerful than any king or sovereign. However, priests as rulers apparently aren’t the best as they are, “unable to direct organized warfare, and temporal potentates… and led the prince into the presence of the deity.” (Crowley, and Heyer ) For states to survive they need to be stocked and ready for war at any moment, the inability of the temples to do this led to their rescindment of power back to a monarch.
One of the most important discoveries that I have made in this book is the realization that even the most basic knowledge can be twisted to hurt society as well as help it. I have always struggled to grasp how a democratic society (greece) existed and was subsequently stripped out of existence for almost 1000 years. This religious monopoly on knowledge makes it clearer how powerful language really is. If more people than scribes could read and write I am sure the amount of history that was lost before the dark ages would not have been, and it’s resurfacing supports this idea. The renaissance was heavily influenced by the study of ancient greece, whose texts were saved from from burning by religious leaders in the libraries of what is now Baghdad. Without the ability to read and a focus on knowledge these texts would never have resurfaced. Through reading these chapter it only becomes clearer the reasons why history is the way it is, and how language most certainly has had a significant part to play.
These conclusions and ideas are both refreshing and terrifying. Though we now live in a country where everyone is taught to read and write, free of charge, it is not so in many other countries. What atrocities and lies could be spread there without the open sharing of knowledge? How much harm can be dealt and how much progress can be slowed without the openness of ideas that we so often take for granted in the United States? If an entire culture, and one which has given us some of the most revered philosophers can be wiped out for almost a millennia, what else could be, or has been lost? These consequences for the closed command and spread of media remind of the importance of freedom of speech, and the true value of being able to live in a time and place where it exists.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION:
Crowley, David, and Paul Heyer. Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society. 6th ed. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, Print.
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