Spirituality and Exile

Abstract

In a literate society we take it for granted that the transmission of our culture, knowledge, and methods of innovation - not to mention the basic processes of socialisation that underlie it- are done by means of writing and reading. So much so that we scarcely consider the wider implications of this assumption. Even in an era of radio, television and the telephone, for all but an increasingly marginalised minority of unfortunates, most of the business and even the collective awareness of our society is conducted through a highly stylised system of written symbols.