Weltanschauung |?velt än sh oue ng
noun ( pl. -schauungen )
a particular philosophy or view of life; the worldview of an individual or group.
ORIGIN German, from Welt ‘world’ + Anschauung ‘perception.’

“David Halberstam once observed in The Powers That Be that Murrow was “one of those rare legendary figures who was as good as his myth.” Murrow was apparently driven by the democratic precepts of modern liberalism and the more embracing Weltanschauung of the American Protestant tradition. In Alexander Kendrick’s Prime-Time: The Life of Edward R. Murrow, for example, Murrow’s brother, Dewey, described the intense religious and moral tutelage of his mother and father: “they branded us with their own consciences.” Murrow’s imagination and the long-term effects of his early home life impelled him to integrate his parents’ ethical guidelines into his own personality to such an extensive degree that Edward R. Murrow became the virtual fulfillment of his industry’s public service aspirations.”

I have a theory. My theory is that the web is making us more literate – better readers, better writers.

Clearly, most people I know write more now than they did 10 years ago just because of the complete cultural acceptance of email. I never used to write this much before email. Although those of us who grew up in an age of more formal written communication can bemoan the conversational tone and lack of punctuation that can typify email, I think we can all agree that the very fact that the majority of people in the country are actually writing, and writing more than they would have 10 years ago, is a good thing.

Blogging takes this phenomenon a step further. I write way more now than I did two years ago, before starting to blog. I write articles for the heck of it, just because I find something interesting. Now that wouldn’t have happened 3 years ago, and certainly not 10 years ago.

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