Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Brave New World

Well, the High Priests are once again being overthrown. This time it's big Media. Like most revolts against the priesthood this one is driven by the fact that the priests are no longer the guardians and distributors of Information. Prepare for a few years of confusion.

This is the promise of the Internet come to fruition. Many Westerners thought that the Internet would destroy the remnants of Totalitarianism. Rather, it's bringing down liberal institutions. This is not a bad thing. The Pajama Affair, I want to avoid anything involving -gate as that was the previous era, is a canary. More will follow and it will be confusing.

Feudalism is a great example of what happens when the world changes and ideas don't. Since before the Germanic tribes migrated through the Roman Empire they had a law: All free men fight, every fighting man is free. And each man had to provide weaponry for himself. When this meant bring a sword or spear or staff or axe, most men could afford to fight in the king's service. When the king decreed that all fighting men must be mounted, only the rich could afford to be free. It only took about seven hundred years to create a new paradigm of freedom. We have entered a new era and there is no going back. I think it is time to question everything: modes of governance, taxation, social programs, roles of government, etc.

With the advent of Industrialization came Democracy, with the advent of mass production came the Income Tax, with the advent of distributed networks comes? I don't know. I know that a man I respect very much has been advocating that I (as a 25 year old) need to prepare for a future that will be different from the past.

I am not a pessimist. I do not believe that the world is going to end, but the rate of change is accelerating. Holding fast to time-honored constructs won't work. We need a new paradigm.