> Because it was supposed to be the industry of the future,
> invulnerable to foreign competition, unlike cars and textiles. And
> because the culture of many techies is arrogant and entitled - it
> wasn't supposed to happen to them, just loser blue-collar workers.
The ultimate irony is that high tech is really quite old, dating back to the 1950s; Wild Bill Burroughs pretty much nailed down the categories of the thing in his Nova Express trilogy (microcomputers, software codes, the body as a cybernetic machine, etc.).
What *is* new is the information culture itself -- a bizarre, shape-shifting thing, spawned by the Pentagon but now running riot in the videogame biz. The silicon sands of history are turning against the Bananamericans...
-- DRR