Cable TV caters to these
groups, and so do many importers of products reminiscent of some
country where "food tastes real" and goods "last forever." All of
these carried-over literacies are, in final analysis, means of
self-constitution, bridges between cultures that will be burned
by the third generation. In practicing the literacy of origins,
human beings constitute themselves as split personalities
between two pragmatic contexts. One embodies expectations
characteristic of the context that relied upon literacy-
homogeneity, hierarchy, centralism, tradition. The other, of the
adopted country, is focused upon needs that effect the
transition to the civilization of illiteracy- heterogeneity,
horizontality, decentralism, tradition as choice, but not way of
life.
Aspects of immigration (and in general of human migration) need
to be addressed, not from the perspective of parallel
literacies, but as variations within a unifying pragmatic
framework. The de-culturization of people originating from many
countries and belonging to many nations is probably a unique
feature of America. It impacted all aspects of life, and
continues to be a source of vitality, as well as tension.
Immigrants arrive as literates (some more so than others) only to
discover that their literacy is relatively useless. That things
were not always like this is relatively well documented. Neil
Postman reported that the 17th-century settlers were quite
literate in terms characteristic of the time.
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