Any culture or nation that does not come to grips with the technologies changing our lives is, quite literally, living in the past. While the French argue over the culture of communications, they inevitably discourage investment. Who is going to invest in building an “information superhighway” if they do not know what traffic it will be allowed to carry? … If Europe falls even further behind on that highway, it will no longer have to worry about its cultures, for it will have effectively put them all in a museum. As Molire once said: “Nearly all men die of their remedies, and not of their illnesses.”
Predictor: Andrews, John
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 essay for Wired magazine, John Andrews, The Economist’s correspondent in Brussels, looks at the efforts of the French government to stifle the global expansion of American culture. Andrews writes: ”At the end of the day, will all the quotas and cultural arm-twisting have been worth it? The French are likely to declare victory no matter what happens. But at best it will be a hollow one. A nation’s soul cannot be manufactured by regulatory fiat. And a nation’s culture, the expression of its soul, cannot be preserved in a regulatory museum; it must evolve. There will always be subsidies for the arts – from state support for opera in Britain to tax incentives for film production in Ireland. But to set quotas is to stifle the conversations and the evolution that keeps culture alive. French TV soaps with their guaranteed market share are no better than the American ones, while good French pop groups, like Les Negresses Vertes, don’t need any state-guaranteed FM air time … What is at risk in the arguments over culture, however, is France’s – and Europe’s – stake in the future. Any culture or nation that does not come to grips with the technologies changing our lives is, quite literally, living in the past. While the French argue over the culture of communications, they inevitably discourage investment. Who is going to invest in building an ‘information superhighway’ if they do not know what traffic it will be allowed to carry? Europe is already behind in joining the new technological world. One of the key steps, complete liberalization of all telecommunications, has stupidly been allowed to wait until 1998. If Europe falls even further behind on that highway, it will no longer have to worry about its cultures, for it will have effectively put them all in a museum. As Molire once said: ‘Nearly all men die of their remedies, and not of their illnesses.'”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Global Relationships/Politics
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: Culture Wars: Francois Mitterrand has Declared War on Mickey, Madonna, and All-American Culture. Bad News, Francois: Mickey’s Winning
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.05/culture_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney