Speaking into the Air by John Durham Peters, University of Chicago Press,
拢18.50/$26, ISBN 0226662764
WE humans dream of sharing our thoughts and invent wonderful tools to help us
do so. Words and pictures fly around the globe, yet our muddles, squabbles, road
rages and wars suggest that at a deeper level, we communicate no better than our
ancestors.
Even the word 鈥渃ommunicate鈥� is a bit of a trap. Its roots lie in the Latin
communicare, meaning to share or make common. It had nothing to do with
sharing thoughts鈥攖hat usage took more than a thousand years to come about.
The modern sense of 鈥渃ommunication鈥� begins to appear in English in the 17th
century, originating from an application of physical processes鈥攎agnetism,
convection and gravitation鈥攖o contact between minds.
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Speculation about action-at-a-distance led to 鈥渃ommunication鈥� acquiring its
present meaning. The concept dominates the 20th century, says John Durham
Peters, 鈥渁nd some of the chief dilemmas of our age turn on communication or
communication gone sour鈥�.
Speaking into the Air tells the story of how communication became
such a source of trouble for us. Durham Peters illuminates our present confusion
by exploring apposite past moments with which he believes the present age has an
affinity. To do this, he contrasts dialogue with dissemination, two fundamental
concepts in communication theory. Dialogue implies reciprocity, mutuality and
the intensity of close relationships, such as between lovers. The possibilities
of dialogue can be extended over great distances by the telegraph, the telephone
or the Internet. Dissemination is the indiscriminate and profligate throwing of
seed upon the ground, or the word to an audience, now by means of radio or
television worldwide鈥攁nd, yes, also by the Net鈥檚 spammers.
Durham Peters鈥檚 focus is the intellectual and moral shadow cast down the
centuries by Socrates and Jesus in specific texts written by their disciples,
Plato and the Synoptic evangelists.
Socrates, in Phaedo, favours dialogue; Jesus, according to the
Synoptic Gospels, favours dissemination. Moral theory, Peters says, has long
taken its bearings from a confrontation between these two. Why not communication
theory? He maintains that for communication to take place, open scatter is more
fundamental than coupled sharing鈥攊t is the stuff from which, on rare
splendid occasions, dialogue may arise.
This is a most interesting and thought-provoking book, and all who wish to
communicate well should read Speaking into the Air. Peters maintains
that communication is ultimately unthinkable apart from the task of establishing
a kingdom in which people can live together peacefully. Given our condition as
mortals, communication remains not primarily a problem of technology, but of
power, ethics and art.