[Prev|Next| Index] Julian Gordon jewels@well.com Thu, Feb 15, 1996 6:57:36
PM

Democracy?

By Julian Gordon
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I'd love to help.

I think that this is one of the most momentus moments in the history of
telecommunications, and it's popular aspect - where popular is being used
in the sense of 'of the people, for the people, by the people'. It is the
first real test that the internet is going through, and how it emerges from
this challange will impact the future drastically.

It is the moment that the Internet will either prove to be able to
withstand the onslaught of the powers that be, and thus an important new
tool for democracy and freedom of expression, or else it will become an
historic allegory for the omnipotence of the controlling bodies.

It will herald the end of the era of revolution in the newest frontier,
cyberspace. A place where many of the disenchanted of the 60's and it's
influenced have been able to express their creativity that might (or might
not) have been stifled in other ways.

Always have we been amazed that at the core of one of the darkest pages in
modern history, the preperation for nuclear war, was born the seed of what
many of us see to be potentially one of the most democratic and
far-reaching arena's of communication - the "internet". This is because at
its inception it was not to have a central control, thus allowing for an
expression of the type of democracy we all dream about, but seldom see in
reality. For all forms within this culture, have at their very inception
this idea. It has always amazed me that in a culture that preaches freedom,
through democracy (ie voted representatives), the vast majority of
institutions are distinctly undemocratic. Which has always made me think of
what actually constitutes a democracy?

Just the fact that we have voted in representatives. Is there no built in
bias there? At this stage, it would seem to me that the bias is one of
money (are we surprised?). The rich can afford to be elected, the poor
don't bother to vote. Then, how are these representatives made to take
responsibility in any way for what they represented at the voting booths,
and often forget once they enter the political arena. But I digress, let me
not bore you with the obvious helplessness that we all feel as far as the
many abuses of political power that we see all the time. We are all only
human, and the idiom: "Absolute Power corrupts absolutely", and "From
Wisdom comes Power, while from Power, Wisdom does not proceed".

I have always felt that both socialism and democracy have the same goal in
mind. Local empowerment. Though their methods, and the institutions, and
economic system that they both preach (and seem to practice) are very
different. But both of them are complete solutions. That is they will only
work if everyone participates actively. As we know, in a lot of cases,
people are too burnt-out to participate. Due to the daily pressures, it may
take all one's energy just to keep hale and hearty.

So all of us need to take up arms, the keyboard being the weapon of the
Inter-knights, and express our outrage at this latest invasion of our minds
by those that seek absolute control.

As a final, I think some times of the abnormal state of mind of a person
who has the presumption to believe that he or she has the "divine" or
"legitimate" right to make decisions for millions of people. I shudder to
imagine what an advanced state of megalomania that person must be in.

In the end, what we need is a local, distributed network for all to have
local representation and expression. Agreed upon standards can be
implemented and improved by service providers (like utility, and telecom
companies), who have no right to impose any morals on the local
communities.

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