Do you think Americans are ignorant and apathetic about the election?" asks the pollster. "I don't know, and I don't care," answers the citizen, slamming the door.

George Gilder calls the networked computer "a powerful force for democracy, individuality, community, and high culture." Newt Gingrich boasts that THOMAS, the Library of Congress's online system, will shift political clout "toward the citizens and out of the Beltway" because, after all, " knowledge…