Cynthia Selfe Narrative #1 Aaron, Pinky, Kailey, David, Joey, Brittany

The popular narrative is the global village in which the peoples of the world are all equal and connected-communicating with one another and cooperating for the commonweal.

The revised narrative is called the electronic colony in which Americans bring technology to the world’s people, rain them to use it, and therefore control the users of the technology.

Americans revise the narrative to have the advantage and to control the global village in their own terms. Also, we don’t want to have to give up the privileges that we have as one of the global leaders. We want to be able to have the majority of the power and resources.

One of the consequences of the revision is that it convinces Americans that we can fix problems of the world that are not fixable with technology. Another consequence is that it encourages colonialism- invading other countries and bombarding them with our ideas and help that they might not have asked for.

The revised narrative reinforces our cultural forces of classism, racism, and the importance and value of higher education. We as Americans have the idea that we can police the world, and since we have the upper hand in technology, that gives us the idea that we can intervene in other cultures.