I believe we're witnessing the violent spasms of a dying beast: the Political Entity that is unable to come to grips with a wired, ever-evolving world. As such, entities like BushGov are lashing out, desperately grasping for control with the only weapon they have...fear.
A politician has one, and only one true job: To get re-elected. True, they are meant to represent the People who put them in office, but, until recently, our elected officials have been able to operate with a certain carte blanche due to the fact that, really, only the waning Washington Press Corps was there to confront them. True, the media have ever-increasingly cast a fiendish eye at those in power, but they have succeeded in merely casting our past presidents, congressmen and governors as bit-players in some political satire and, hence, most voters and potential voters have lost interest in the daily minutia that define our governing bodies...despite the fact that we 'hired' those governing bodies in the first place.
As any business owner can tell you, you don't hire employees and then walk away, only checking on them from time to time, trusting them to 'mind the store' while you carry on about the little things that make your life a Life. Some employees are good enough that they don't need a keeper. Many, however, are not.
Such is the case with Washington (or Sacramento, New York, Atlanta, where ever). We have hired our 'leaders' and merely walked away, trusting them to get the job done, not rob us blind, drive the store into the ground or scare off all our customers. We have done this for years it seems and the price we have paid is that, increasingly, politicians forgot that they were working for us and merely started working for themselves (if they ever weren't).
The problem is that this is all changing. We no longer live in a world were a tiny number of news networks and papers offer us the latest from the under-belly of politics via radio chats, evening news and the morning edition. Now we live in a era of instant messaging, blogs and connectivity that the world, much less Washington, has never seen. It has been said that the Berlin Wall came down due to the information age and I think we're seeing the same thing here.
BushGov, hell, the whole of Washington as well as every major corporation out there, is living in complete and utter fear. Fear of the leveling ability that technology has given each and every one of us to no longer be uninformed or uninvolved. Now news (real or imagined and most likely not well-edited) can be gleaned on any number of blogs and video sites. No other administration has ever faced that kind of challenge; no other administration has ever had to deal with its supporters and detractors being able to be informed at the touch of a button or the click of a mouse. This ability, the ability to be instantly informed, is unique to this age, and is scaring the hell out of our 'employees' because we've just installed a sort of internal security system to monitor their behavior. And the result? Our 'employees' are doing everything in their power to not get fired, to keep their jobs, and make sure their friends keep their jobs too.
But, gods willing, the violent spasms of a dying beast can only last so long. Because no matter what happens now, there is no going back. Hell, even parts of the Third World are better wired than parts of the US.
There is no turning back. As our leaders buy into and dish out the fear and hatred that they hope will keep them in power, they are dong it under the watchful eyes of a digital world that can color-correct the shadows faster than any spin doctor.
Whether you believe in biological evolution or not, this is an era of digital evolution and in this era, regimes that believe they can act with impunity because they are inviolate are NOT being selected for.
A politician has one, and only one true job: To get re-elected. True, they are meant to represent the People who put them in office, but, until recently, our elected officials have been able to operate with a certain carte blanche due to the fact that, really, only the waning Washington Press Corps was there to confront them. True, the media have ever-increasingly cast a fiendish eye at those in power, but they have succeeded in merely casting our past presidents, congressmen and governors as bit-players in some political satire and, hence, most voters and potential voters have lost interest in the daily minutia that define our governing bodies...despite the fact that we 'hired' those governing bodies in the first place.
As any business owner can tell you, you don't hire employees and then walk away, only checking on them from time to time, trusting them to 'mind the store' while you carry on about the little things that make your life a Life. Some employees are good enough that they don't need a keeper. Many, however, are not.
Such is the case with Washington (or Sacramento, New York, Atlanta, where ever). We have hired our 'leaders' and merely walked away, trusting them to get the job done, not rob us blind, drive the store into the ground or scare off all our customers. We have done this for years it seems and the price we have paid is that, increasingly, politicians forgot that they were working for us and merely started working for themselves (if they ever weren't).
The problem is that this is all changing. We no longer live in a world were a tiny number of news networks and papers offer us the latest from the under-belly of politics via radio chats, evening news and the morning edition. Now we live in a era of instant messaging, blogs and connectivity that the world, much less Washington, has never seen. It has been said that the Berlin Wall came down due to the information age and I think we're seeing the same thing here.
BushGov, hell, the whole of Washington as well as every major corporation out there, is living in complete and utter fear. Fear of the leveling ability that technology has given each and every one of us to no longer be uninformed or uninvolved. Now news (real or imagined and most likely not well-edited) can be gleaned on any number of blogs and video sites. No other administration has ever faced that kind of challenge; no other administration has ever had to deal with its supporters and detractors being able to be informed at the touch of a button or the click of a mouse. This ability, the ability to be instantly informed, is unique to this age, and is scaring the hell out of our 'employees' because we've just installed a sort of internal security system to monitor their behavior. And the result? Our 'employees' are doing everything in their power to not get fired, to keep their jobs, and make sure their friends keep their jobs too.
But, gods willing, the violent spasms of a dying beast can only last so long. Because no matter what happens now, there is no going back. Hell, even parts of the Third World are better wired than parts of the US.
There is no turning back. As our leaders buy into and dish out the fear and hatred that they hope will keep them in power, they are dong it under the watchful eyes of a digital world that can color-correct the shadows faster than any spin doctor.
Whether you believe in biological evolution or not, this is an era of digital evolution and in this era, regimes that believe they can act with impunity because they are inviolate are NOT being selected for.
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
radiofrank:
What do you think I am? A network executive? 
edea:
thank you for the sweet comment!
