RAH - The Internet, biometrics and the grass-roots democratic self-organization of society

Jonathan, you have just put a big toe tentatively outside the box. Now, take a deep breath and come right on out into the fresh air of a whole new socio-economic paradigm, where there is so much work to be done (and fun to be had) creating an Alternative to the doomed, because wholly unsustainable (as well as unjust and inhumane), socio-economic order we live in at present.

I know that you (like so many others) are doing very nicely for yourself in the world as it is, and can understand your anxiety about, not just a "shift", even a "dramatic" one, in political culture, but what will amount to a complete change in the socio-economic order (a revolution, no less), and where that will leave you and your family. But if we carry on the way we are, we are doomed - all of us.

The box we are in (the existing socio-economic paradigm) is about to be crushed (in the coming decades) by a ruthless Mother Nature. Either we get out and build an Alternative while there is still time, or we (our children and grandchildren) will be crushed within it.

Ever since society expanded beyond the size of our extended family group, cunning individuals have worked at organizing and manipulating it in such a way as to facilitate its exploitation for their own advantage, while disingenuously (or perhaps sincerely) insisting that they were serving society as a whole (sometimes, perhaps, they were). These individuals (and their families) formed common interest groups (first an aristocracy and priesthood, then capital and a "meritocracy", which gets the plum positions in the socio-economic hierarchy), while the mass of society had no choice but to allow itself to be manipulated and exploited by those claiming to serve them and their putative common interests.

This is the way it has been down the ages, and essentially still is today: elites of clever and/or powerful people manipulating and exploiting society, not just but primarily, for their own advantage. But the Internet - in combination with another emerging technology, "biometrics" - will change all that. Together they will facilitate society's grass-roots democratic "self-organization".

Biometrics is essential to prevent identity deception, which in anonymous, multi-mass society makes so easy for those who would manipulate and exploit others for the own unfair advantage to get away with undetected.

http://www.spaceship-earth.org

To: Guardian CiF Re: The Internet, biometrics and the grass-roots democratic self-organization of society Date: Wednesday 30 May 07

In response Jonathan Freedland's "The internet will revolutionise the very meaning of politics". Link to article and thread at The Guardian. Jonathan, you have just put a big toe tentatively outside the box. Now, take a deep breath and come right on out into the fresh air of a whole new socio-economic paradigm, where there is so much work to be done (and fun to be had) creating an Alternative to the doomed, because wholly unsustainable (as well as unjust and inhumane), socio-economic order we live in at present. I know that you (like so many others) are doing very nicely for yourself in the world as it is, and can understand your anxiety about, not just a "shift", even a "dramatic" one, in political culture, but what will amount to a complete change in the socio-economic order (a revolution, no less), and where that will leave you and your family. But if we carry on the way we are, we are doomed - all of us. The box we are in (the existing socio-economic paradigm) is about to be crushed (in the coming decades) by a ruthless Mother Nature. Either we get out and build an Alternative while there is still time, or we (our children and grandchildren) will be crushed within it. Ever since society expanded beyond the size of our extended family group, cunning individuals have worked at organizing and manipulating it in such a way as to facilitate its exploitation for their own advantage, while disingenuously (or perhaps sincerely) insisting that they were serving society as a whole (sometimes, perhaps, they were). These individuals (and their families) formed common interest groups (first an aristocracy and priesthood, then capital and a "meritocracy", which gets the plum positions in the socio-economic hierarchy), while the mass of society had no choice but to allow itself to be manipulated and exploited by those claiming to serve them and their putative common interests. This is the way it has been down the ages, and essentially still is today: elites of clever and/or powerful people manipulating and exploiting society, not just but primarily, for their own advantage. But the Internet - in combination with another emerging technology, "biometrics" - will change all that. Together they will facilitate society's grass-roots democratic "self-organization". Biometrics is essential to prevent identity deception, which in anonymous, multi-mass society makes so easy for those who would manipulate and exploit others for the own unfair advantage to get away with undetected. http://www.spaceship-earth.org