Day 14
Today’s class began as a mini explanation of how everything we’d learned thus far tied together. The Cold War produced the technology we have now, yet maintained authority over it all through control of information: hiding its presence and that which it produced. However, the father/inventor of the internet built into its code the complete opposite of this: a form of free, fast, and easy universal information sharing. The result, as he stated, was “a revolution in control over information, and the way we understand authority”. What’s this mean? Control of information goes to everyone, as it’s simple enough to put a rumor or fact into place. But notice how I stated one or the other? A fact is generally considered true, yet a rumor is generally considered false, but still interesting. How do we tell the difference?
In class, we began to discuss the idea of black men as soldiers in the confederate side of the civil war. Does this seem plausible? this idea was spread through social media, textbooks, etc. with much skepticism. It is currently still being looked into as true or false. This photo here is one that our teacher showed in class as proof of African Americans in the Confederate army. 
We discussed the probabilities of its true value, then he showed us another picture. This happens to be the uncropped version of the original photo. The commander of the group is wearing a union uniform. The most likely reason the African Americans are wearing the grey uniforms is due to the fact that there were very few uniform regulations during this time, resulting in wearing whatever you could get your hands on. Ever heard the story that many soldiers had trouble distinguishing friend from foe during the civil war? That’s why. And when they did begin to regulate uniforms (grey vs blue), how much difference is there between their colors anyway?
Also, for those who are curious as to the origins of this photo, here it is: This is actually a union recruitment photo for African Americans in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Why have I been going on about this? Because it refers to the second part of the result of what we’ve learned so far in this class: “the way we understand authority”. With the advent of the internet, authority hopped in a car and took a permanent vacation in the Cayman Islands. Everyone can post something on the internet, which means everyone has authority. Now, I know that’s not what most people think of when the word ‘authority’ is broached. Typically, you refer to teachers, police, or some form of administrator. Where do you think they get all their information from? During this class, my teacher flat out stated that he got all this information on the internet. We have the burden of researching not only the topic or question in google, but also its validity. That is what it means to have a question of authority.
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