Oneness

What Matters Most……… Commentary by Jim High

Sometime during the 1990’s I attended an Economic Conference in Memphis, TN, to hear Jim Barksdale talk about this new company called Netscape, and something called the Internet.  During that speech he made a most remarkable statement that I have never forgotten.  He said, “The Internet will change the world more than the invention of the printing press.”  Most of us in the room that day didn’t even know what the Internet was and, of course, were not using it.  I didn’t even own a computer at that time.

Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1439, and began work on that now famous Gutenberg Bible in 1450.  By 1455 he had completed an estimated 200 copies of the Bible.  Before that time, books had to be hand copied by scribes, and no two turned out exactly alike.  Books were only for the wealthy and the church, because only a few people could read and even less could afford to own a hand copied book.

But here’s the real explosion of knowledge caused by the invention of the printing press.  In only a little over 50 years, printing presses were established in 2,500 cities throughout Europe and 15,000,000 books representing 30,000 titles had been printed.  Of course, today we have Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble Bookstores, and billions of books.  How could something I knew nothing about and didn’t understand change the world more than this?

The Internet has a long history, probably going all the way back to a science-fiction comic book from 1946 that laid out how it might work along with its strengths and weaknesses.  And we all now know that Vice President Al Gore really didn’t invent the Internet, even though he is supposed to have said once that he did.  But during the 1990’s a lot of things came together and the Internet was created.  The Internet is just what its name implies.  It is a network of lots of computer networks and systems all talking to each other with a shared understandable language.

During the early part of 2008 Oprah Winfrey teamed up with Eckhart Tolle to host a worldwide live Internet seminar about his book, A New Earth.  A friend and I met every Monday night for ten weeks to read, to listen, to watch and to participate in the discussion of the chapters of this book.  The worldwide audience grew to over one million people, and we could watch as people from all over the world asked questions and got answers.  That was surely the largest classroom event ever.  And it gave both of us a special feeling to know that people just like us were gathered in front of their computers, and like us were learning and hearing the discussion all at the same time. 

As of June 30, 2008, an estimated 1.463 billion people use the Internet.  Yes, the Internet is truly changing the world more than the invention of the printing press.  And right before our eyes.  Jim Barksdale was correct.

What matters most is that through this radical change now taking place in our world, we have the opportunity to bring about the oneness and connection between all the people of the world that has always been present, but not recognized until now.   And the realization of our oneness with each other will ultimately create a positive change in our personal lives, our communities, and our nation. And this change is happening in all nations for all of the world’s population.

                                                            © 2008 #14  Jim High can be reached at P. O. Box 467, Tupelo, MS 38802-0467