The Debate on what government would look like if...
I had this very same discussion with multiple persons last week...
Eliminating the scarcity in deep political thinking.
Jock Gill has been talking about government as something produced rather than consumed by its citizens. It's an important distinction. Britt expands on the concept and adds this:
We can't count on government, which seems to have devolved into a partisan pit of paralyzed pedantry, focused on neoconservative initiatives and progressive reactions. But, if the government were to suddenly transform itself into a citizen-centric governance model, how would that model be expressed? Through a series of web apps, whether for citizen input or IRS forms.
And this:
For the last 20 months, our government has not allowed us to make a difference. On 9/12/01, most Americans woke up yearning to contribute. We donated blood but the blood banks ran out of room before most of us could contribute. We tried to drive to New York to help pick through the rubble, but were turned back at the bridges and tunnels. Instead, we got an ad from our president encouraging us to be loyal consumers and get on airplanes and fly anywhere but to New York! "Keep moving folks, there's nothing to see here. We don't need your help."
If my premise is correct, this snub will be looked back on as one of the great political blunders in history. If it is revealed as a blunder, it will be because one candidate with enough common sense, charisma and speaking ability set up a web application and a related web log that linked to the web logs of people who still had not been permitted to make a difference.
The 44th president of the United States will be elected by a bottom-up, citizen-led production. That president will, literally, be owned by citizens, whose resources trump companies. If we put ourselves in the place of that 44th president, what kind of government will we fashion.
Probably a web app.
Even if you don' t like Britt's (or Howard Dean's) politics, and even if you like the present president (who often pronounces the latter word as if it were the former), you gotta give Britt points for thinking here. The best political analyses of our time, on all sides, seems to be coming from abundant sources other than the usual producers.
[The Doc Searls Weblog]
