In message <[log in to unmask]> Ahmad wrote:

> The point is:  that those couch potatoes will have their diet
> delivered differently.  Their influence,  if ever they had any (which
> I think that suggesting they never had any is patronising in the
> extreme) will be exerted differently.

Sadly, I have to admit to believing that real power rests in
the hands of a tiny minority. The rest of us (me, included)
are essentially powerless. The skill of remaining in power
at the end of the second millennium is in persuading the
masses (including me) that they (we) have the power when, of
course, we don't.

Patronising? Perhaps, but I'd like to think not.

> It was couch potatoes who tore down the Berlin Wall and conducted the
> Velvet Revolution.  It was couch potatoes who topples Shah Rida
> Bahlavi,  it was couch potatoes who fought the American War of
> Independence,  and on and on.

The instruments, perhaps, but not the masterminds.
Oooh, I feel another conspiracy theory coming on!

> The point is:  the Networked Individual will bypass structured and
> institutionalised (and cliquie) access to information,  its flavour
> and eventually,  its use.

The medium may indeed change, but the message will remain.
I think I'm repeating what someone else has already said.
Sorry.

> The point is:  the Plow and Factory Revolution did,  and in a major
> way,  affect the lives of millions of people.  To the better or worse
> is not the point.  The point is that it did happen.

I'm no historian but I rather think that the majority
of the minions involved in such events were less
concerned with the grand scheme of things than with
any short-term gains which they perceived would result,
and that those short-term gains would have been pointed
out to them by people further up the chain of command,
working to their own agenda.

> Now,  are you going to sit and watch or are you going to try to
> understand and adapt?

At the tender age of 35 I am slowly realising that the
way of the world is neither how I was taught it would
be, how I imagined it would be, how I believe it should
be, nor how it is likely to be in the future.

But this is hardly the forum for a 'general outlook on
life' discussion.

Regarding professional issues, as each year passes, there
is less and less in general practice that interests me.
The increasing demands, the decreasing remuneration (cash,
psychological), the increasing (threat of) violence, the
decreasing status, the threat of litigation, etc, etc, etc,
the more I want to go off somewhere and 'do my own thing'
which would probably have very little to do with other people.
When I work out what this is and when I can earn a living
at it, I'll let you know.

Maybe I could become a... (rips of cardigan to reveal
thin material barely concealing rippling torso)...

                CYBER-DOCTOR!!!

             hahahaHaHaHaHAHAHA!!!


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