The
aquired, non-genetic storage of necessary cultural information : Paideia has to
take place from one generation to the other. Viewed not from its content, but
its structure, the syntax enables an
imperative, indicative etc. Hence a surface covered in code (a picture) for example of an enthusiastic, dynamic
smoker is an indicative.
In early
education one learns mainly these imperatives from group-members or
instructors. These 'behavioural programmes' set values and ethics for life.
In school
the communication of operatives provides an 'experiential programme'.
Tertiary
and lifelong education operate on indicatives, or 'knowledge’ (Erkenntnis)
All three
levels are of course never distinct in reality. To not 'pick your nose' can
remain a life-long value, but school or tertiary information can be obsolete
within a very short time.
Paideia or
the messages, that programme us are now being usurped by a single sender, the
mass media . It transmits the imperative of the system itself, which are mainly
models for behaviours of consumption. The outcome is a value-free behaviour,
that allows the interests of the senders to appear as one with the interests of
the receivers.
A
programming elite with the help of science & technology beam their
discursive indicatives form the centre of a one-way amphitheatre. The codes of
mass-culture tend to become universal on the 'techno-imaginative surfaces' (TV,
magazines, billboards etc.) which are absorbed by the receivers.
The
division of sender vs. receiver culture works to the advantage of the ‘elite’,
which aims to consume to the max, and has other than that little vision of the
direction of the entire programme, in fact they are outright incapable of
assembling any other programme.
Interactive,
dialogic networks are the answer to a mono-logical discourse.
Inspired by:
Vilém Flusser, Kommunikologie, Fischer 1998, pp 309-329
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