European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 26, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes saturday september 26, 1967 columns Anthony Lewis Bork bending his views to improve his chances the hearings on judge Robert Dork s nomination to the supreme court have done something altogether unexpected. They have demonstrated How deeply this country believes in he court As the defender of our freedoms. The premise in All Comers or that committee room is that the court must be Strong in interpreting the Constitution to protect individual rights. Senators have not just supported the court s function in the abstract. They have supported the decisions protecting free speech and Equality and autonomy. We Are often told now that it is undemocratic for judges to obstruct executive or legislative actions that harm individuals. That is a philosophical argument of substance. But in the real world of american beliefs it has almost no weight. The senators on the judiciary committee see nothing undemocratic incur tradition of relying on judges to protect our rights. Americans expect the supreme court to protect minorities the powerless those with unpopular views. We expect the court to step in when the state tries to intrude on our autonomy he Core of our being despite doubts on this or that we approve the liberating spirit of he court s decisions Over the last 35 years. That was the feeling in the com Mittee room when Bork testified. It was he framework in which one had to Sec his astonishing recantation of views that he had held for so Long and expressed so strongly his denunciation of Many supreme court decisions protecting individuals from the Power of the slate. For 16 years Bork had argued that the clause of the 4lh amendment Guaran teeing the a Jual Protection of the Laws should apply Only to racial or ethnic distinctions. He said it was not legitimate for the supreme court to apply it to sea discrimination As the court Baa. He reiterated his View As recently As this Pas june. But last week Bork told the judiciary Tom Wicker committee that everybody is covered men women  he said of the equal Protection clause it Means what the words say All persons Are protected against unreasonable legislative  free speech was another example. Bork has Long criticized the supreme court s 1969 decision in Brandenburg is. Ohio holding that a speaker can be punished Only for inciting lawlessness at a moment when it is imminent. He called the Rule fundamentally  last week Bork said the Brandenburg Rule was a Good  or at least he seemed to. The next Day he said he still doubled ii but had no desire to Over turn  there As in other matters the extent of Bork s transformation was left in doubt. But there was no question about the impression he sought to imprint on the minds of the senators. Thai was that he was in Broad agreement with the thrust of the supreme court s decisions. Courts he said should be Active in defending individual  the irony of it All could not be  Reagan and his followers have railed against an activist supreme court they picked Bork As an exemplar of their position. Yet Here he was Retreat ing from his own articulations of it in a hearing that was an affirmation of the judicial Power they deplore. Especially striking in that regard was Bork s abandonment of a theme dear to the heart of attorney general Edwin Meuse. That is Mcnese s assertion that the supreme court has been on shaky ground Over the last 60 years in Reading the 14th amendment to incorporate an apply to the states what the Bill of rights guaranteed against Federal repression such As Freedom of speech. At the University of South Carolin Alaw school in 1983 not told family members that he did not think the 14th amendment was intended to incorporate the Bill of rights. Last week he stated his full acceptance of the incorporation  most Bork supporters pretended that there was nothing notable in what was happening. A few conservatives were More candid among them Bruce fein of the heritage foundation. The week has been a magnificent Triumph for the liberals fein said after Bork testified. The Basic message sent by the hearings so far is that the courts Are about where they should be that no great changes Are needed. Bork is Bend ing his views to improve his Confirma Tion chances and it s a shame. His ambition perhaps exceeds his intellectual Devotion. There Are not a lot of Socrates running around saying of i la Lake the  technological change demands social change West Berlin when a solar powered water pump was provided for a Well in India the Village headman took it Over and sold the water until stopped. The new liquid abundance attracted hordes of unwanted nomads. Village boys who had drawn water in buckets had nothing to do and some became criminals. The Gap Between Rich and poor widened since the poor had no land to Benefit from irrigation. Finally Village women broke he pump so they could gather again around the Well that had been the enter of their social lives. Moral technological advances have social cultural and economic consequences often unanticipated. That was a prime concern of an International symposium on the emerging global information society convened by the German Institute for economic studies As part of Berlin s 750th anniversary Obser Vances. The cautionary talc of the solar pump a real Case study was provided by or. Anne Marie Lau Lan of the University of Bordeaux. One of the challenges of the oncoming Era of microelectronics and telecommunications participants frequently noted will be to prevent or to provide suitable adjustments for the unemployment that Wilt be threatened among persons not adapted to or educated for the new technologies. Another will be to prepare for new definitions of work working hours and Leisure Lime. Those who fear that people in the future will become slaves to television Ana hop Reading books for example May be on the wrong track if people screen work All Day in front of a computer display scr they May not want to watch a to screen Al night. If More and More people work at Home As is Likely they May demand More cultural and sports facilities to provide greater Opportunity for social min gling with other people. These mailers Are not theoretical they Are Alhand. Several multinational corporations for exam ple already have moved All or part of their communications centers to Britain from West Germany citing lower Telephone line charges and less Burden some regulation As prime reasons. In Sweden knowledge handlers working in in formation services Rose from 10 percent of the work Force in 1960 to 18 percent in 1980 and Wil be 26percent by the year 2000. Alfred c. Partoll a senior vice president of Ameri can Telephone and Telegraph reported to a workshop group the opinion of Bell laboratories scientists thai by the same year about As near to us in Lime As 1974, when president Nixon resigned microelectronics will offer 40 to 400 times the Power of Silicon computer chips in use today. That Means greater memory storage capacity and More powerful microprocessors the array of chips hat perform the Basic computing function. In photonic he said. Bell scientists expect thai by 2000, a single optic fiber will be Able to trans Mil 10 million conversations or 10,000 digital television channels at the same time. Today they can carry Only 3,0x90 conversations. By the year 2000, Nartoli predicted Small hand held computers reacting to vocal instruction would connect their users to an array of data Banks through worldwide fiber optic networks. At least in the West he expects such computers to be Low priced consumer items. Through such devices communications will be come More personal you won t dial the Telephone number of a place but of a person wherever he or she May be. Another result Partoll suggested could be a threat to the wholesale Industry retailers would be connected electronically to manufacturers so that when a Sale is recorded an order for a replacement will be transmitted directly. He warned that Large business customers mostly International would be a major influence in deter mining Public policy toward such technologies. They would want the highest level of service everywhere he said and would go where they could get it like those companies leaving West Germany for Britain without waiting for Public policy to change. Thus Public policy will have to accommodate the demands of technology and those who want to Bene fit and profit from it. Perhaps mindful of the solar pump on the Village Well however few Al the sym mum seemed willing to leave development of the information society entirely to the marketplace. Whal the future really demanded someone suggested and Many repeated rather wistfully was an innovative society As Well As innovative technology