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J. P. Barlow — Internet Has Broken the Political System
MexiCali59 recommends an account up at Hillicon Valley on a speech by John Perry Barlow to the Personal Democracy Forum in New York. "The deluge of information available on the Web has made the country ungovernable, according to EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow. 'The political system is broken partly because of Internet,' Barlow said. 'It's made it impossible to govern anything the size of the nation-state. We're going back to the city-state. The nation-state is ungovernably information-rich.' ... Barlow said there is too much going on at every level in Washington, DC, for the government to effectively handle everything on its plate. Instead, he advocated citizens organizing around the issues most important to them. 'There is a circle of fat around the Beltway that is incredibly thick. We can no longer try to run this country from the center. We've got to run it, just like the Internet, from the edges.' Barlow also said that President Barack Obama's election, driven largely by small donations, has fundamentally changed American politics. He said a similar bottom-up structure is needed for governing as well. 'It's not the second coming, everything won't get better overnight, but that made it possible to see a future where it wasn't simply a matter of money to define who won these things. The government could finally start belonging to people eventually.'"
I thought Newt Gingrich was gone?
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
The nation-state is ungovernably information-rich.
Your right, we should tax the information-rich individuals and make them give some of their information away...they do not deserve that much information! (Greedy bastards)
there is too much going on at every level in Washington, D.C., for the government to effectively handle everything on its plate.
Oh he is soooo right! I mean, the government was working perfectly before the internet. Wow, glad I've been shown the light!
The former Grateful Dead songwriter said those disppointed in Obama are disregarding the extent to which the political system is broken.
Well that's OK, because Obama said he was going to help fix it! :)
"There is a circle of fat around the Beltway that is incredibly thick" Barlow said. "We can no longer try to run this country from the center. We've got to run it, just like the Internet, from the edges."
Wow, that is an even better analogy than the internet being a "series of tubes"!
I lost some brain cells beating my head against the desk after reading this "quality" piece, but I do not blame the author as much as I do the speaker. In my opinion, perhaps Washington should stop "clogging the internet tubes" as they would put it...
We should start a new Slashdot and return control to the geeks. It actually wouldn't be that hard to get some users to
The problem isn't too much information, it is too much disinformation. People, in general, are too quick to accept something they read as true, especially if it is repeated elsewhere.
Why should I believe that?
I am officially gone from
might be the first man though.
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As opposed to Democrats and Republicans, who think through their ideas, and then promote them because they are evil
Returning to states rights is not going to bring back slavery or the like...
-1 Naive
Don't be an idiot. The Civil War didn't free the slaves, Dr King did, many, many, many years later.
But please, use your eloquence to illustrate exactly how the return of slavery will occur. Or cite your sources, however you like. Do so and I'll happily withdraw my labeling you as a moron.