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In the voyage of humanity,

there have always been many ships and many captains, plying seas of
cultural isolation. Now, we have an Armada - charging full sail at the
future, canons blasting, words hurtling - and while it is obvious that we
are in this together, the destination is much less clear. The fog bank
ahead is the attempts to censure the content of our discourse, it is the
unknowable future disposition of the sun of technology, and the fact that
Democracy cannot exist in a venue of billions.

Today, Democracy may exist on the Internet,

but it is the democracy of Ancient Athens, a plutocracy dominated by those
who own the basic information of our information society: how to
participate in the NET. We, the Info-elite may look around and see
diversity in our numbers, but it is the diversity one sees at a royal court
- we are also the members of the power-elite who through enormous
consumerism (compare yourself to the millions who live for a year on what
you make in a month) or through overt production control the destiny of
this Armada, this human odessey.

We are damned if we do and damned if we don't.

Just as the globalization of capital has resulted in economic colonialism,
so too can the globalization of ideas cause an equal marginalization of
minority opinions. When the rest of humanity gets connected, MOBocracy, a
pervasive, omnipresent electronically powered phenomena may soon replace
the gentile world of nation-state diplomacy, and on a personal level, the
isolation of living in a specific place surrounded by familiar people and
norms. A global market place of ideas may work for an x number of people,
but it will not work for all people. The Net is begining to resemble the
real world of divided groups, but unlike the real world, these groups don't
exist in a geographic or cultural vacumn. What you think may soon resemble
what everybody thinks.

We are, after all, social creatures

, and the hopeful thing is that the NET will allow us to get beyond the
limitations of national priorities. However, it may be a fleeting thing. We
must seize it while we can. I'm with the Armada, and amazed at our
strength; I only hope that the wind from Cyberspace isn't blowing us off
course.

Note: I have offered this as my contribution to 24 hours of Democracy in
Cyberspace

Comments: Send me mail at Dailey@aol.com

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