I think a 1961 story following a decade during which every intellectual was screaming about the evil effects of conformity is the exact opposite of prophetic.
If that is the reason, then the answer is to provide everyone with those feeder schools and outside resources at no additional cost (i.e., all paid through taxes).
I go way back with this, since I used a videophone at the Bell Pavilion in the 1964 World’s Fair. In the mid-90s, when I worked for Bell Labs, we gave a pair away as a prize at the conference. And when I worked at Intel they were pushing video calls as a way of getting people to use more powerful computers.
The loss of privacy issue seemed to come up in the press all the time, because it was risible, no doubt. “Just Imagine” was a good example. But it never seemed to come up when talking to people about videocalls.
What made it happen? Calls were free when everyone had computers with cameras and enough computing power and bandwidth to make them. You think Zoom would have caught on like it did if everyone had to go out and buy equipment?
I run Zoom calls for my club, which is full of old people few of whom had ever did a video call or even an audio teleconference before, but all of whom had the right equipment already.
No one worries about privacy.
Not to mention the ability to videocall naked is seen as a feature, not a problem, and seems to be an industry.
Michelle Gordian wrote stories in 1953 called “Watergate” and “Three Mile Island” - unfortunately, Michelle Gordian is a fictional character from a story in published in 1984 (Hindsight | Turtledove | Fandom)
Chapter 23 of “President Fu Manchu” is called “Fu Manchu’s Water-gate.”
I don’t think Fu Manchu ever says that he is not a crook.
He wasn’t. He was writing a satire against equality of outcome, not opportunity.
That’s only about $14 trillion or about four Bidens worth.
Was going to comment on this but agree with MrDibble that we’re getting too far off track from the OP.
The Watergate hotel gets its name from Watergate (architecture) - Wikipedia, so it’s hardly surprising the word turns up in older references.
Is there any post 2001 written works about a post 2021 Afghanistan?
The best I can think of is from an article by P.J. O’Rourke, but I don’t remember which book, and it wasn’t written as science fiction. He described attending a Buzkashi game in Afghanistan. He said Americans working in that area who went to those games said the experience was so typical of Central Asian politics, they called it the “Metaphor Games.”
Parliament of Whores, I think. He was writing about the Soviet exit.