An Emersonian transformation under way By Christopher Lydon Spring 2006 the town crier is dead and gone, without a successor. We will not hear his hand-bell or his hectoring again. Around his grave the green crocus shoots of new media are growing toward something entirely different: a faster, more diversified, detailed, checkable, and democratic “network of networks” of information and opinion. It could be worthy someday, if we’re lucky, of the great father of all New England conversation, Ralph Waldo Emerson. The Internet is that “better mousetrap” to which, as Emerson said, the world beats a path. I love it...
