Even if we presume the mass acquisition of PCs or set-top boxes enabling easy access to the wording of legislation or actual voting, it seems unlikely that citizen engagement will increase and that the venerable dream of a living democracy will simply be revivified by more bandwidth. If info and access were the magical formulas for a greater democracy, then C-Span would have already wrought major changes in the political landscape. In actuality, it seems, most people are not hankering for greater involvement in political debates and decisions; they’d just like the whole mess to go away while they scramble to make the rent or the mortgage.
Predictor: Kinney, Jay
Prediction, in context:For a 1995 article for Wired magazine, Jay Kinney, publisher and editor of Gnosis: A Journal of the Western Inner Traditions, writes: ”Looking at things with a somewhat longer view, even if we presume the mass acquisition of PCs or set-top boxes enabling easy access to the wording of legislation or actual voting, it seems unlikely that citizen engagement will increase and that the venerable dream of a living democracy will simply be revivified by more bandwidth. If info and access were the magical formulas for a greater democracy, then C-Span would have already wrought major changes in the political landscape. In actuality, it seems, most people are not hankering for greater involvement in political debates and decisions; they’d just like the whole mess to go away while they scramble to make the rent or the mortgage. With the exception of a few issues (such as abortion and gay rights) that have passionately polarized the populace and tend to command visceral responses, it appears most people would be happy to elect one or two representatives they could believe in and let them worry about the fine points of trade deficits and everything else.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Global Relationships/Politics
Subtopic: Democracy
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: ‘Anarcho-Emergentist-Republicans’: Is There a New Politics Emerging in the Net/Cyberspace/Digital Culture?
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.09/netpolitics_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney