Of Empowerment and Other Primers | Veneeta Singha

Of Empowerment and Other Primers

 

 

"Writing and print and the computer are all ways of technologizing the word. Once the word is technologized, there is no effective way to criticize what technology has done with it without the aid of the highest technology available. Moreover, the new technology is not merely used to convey the critique: in fact, it brought the critique into existence." 

 

- Walter J. Ong in 'Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word'

 

 

As the year draws to a close, the rush of priming, framing, linking, delinking and summarily informing an already-saturated techno-ecology must be placed within the primal boundary of expression and the written word. The spoken word too has had countless moments in the sun. I basked in reflected glory this year. My work took me to places (both cerebral and spatial) that merit great praise. My spontaneous, self-driven motivations were met with realization and spurred by enterprise, technology, aesthetics and much more. (It's a pity that auto-complete does not equate to an automated thesaurus replete with meanings that might otherwise be lost in both translation and temporal constraints. Pithy?)

 

 

For me, the basis for empowerment lies in an ecosystem approach. The rationale is a much more weighty pursuit. We have much to be grateful for - tools, mechanisms, frameworks, delayed (and thus salient) features and formulations. We have now mobilized more bytes and jpegs than ever before. Salience. I ask myself often if, in this teeming mass of idioms and ideals, my own voice will ever find itself or, indeed, fruition. As we look to a new year, has the clear stream of reason lost or found its way? Has tireless striving understood perfection? Are our fragments of knowledge finally free?

 

 

To thank every moment and thought is well nigh impossible. But thank you to Sharing4good and all that it represents for allowing me a voice. And participation. The polity of which I am a part may want in online extratextual context but it is a mighty sphere. Empowerment follows. In an ideal world, we might actually see it (physically) awaken into ever-widening thought and action. But thoughtful words and ideas and primers are good too. The depths of truth are an idea. Sharing for good is THE value proposition.