Subtopic: General

The country may be moving in the direction of purer democracy than anything the ancient Greeks envisioned. It promises to be a fiasco. Opinion polls and focus groups are Stone Age implements in the brave new world of interactivity just down the communications superhighway. Imagine an ongoing electronic plebiscite in which millions of Americans will be able to express their views on any public issue at a press of a button. Surely nothing could be a purer expression of democracy. Yet nothing would have a more paralyzing impact on representational government … Now imagine the paralysis that would be induced if constituents could be polled instantly by an all-but-universal interactive system. No more guessing what the voters were thinking; Presidents and lawmakers would have access to a permanent electrocardiogram, hooked up to the body politic.

In kitchens, living rooms, dens, bedrooms, and workplaces throughout the nation, citizens have begun to apply … electronic devices to political purposes, giving those who use them a degree of empowerment they never had before. Digital computer networks provide the means for like-minded folks across America to unite, plan, share information, organize, and plot small political upheavals … Of course, not only individuals but also large, sophisticated, and well-financed interest groups and professional lobbying organizations also have learned how to use these sophisticated new tools of political influence.

Until very recently, George Orwell’s nightmare tale of Big Brother who utilized electronic surveillance technologies to monitor every citizen, hear every word being said, and see everything being done (‘”Big Brother Is Watching You!”) was the prevailing metaphor for the century to come. The frightening vision of Orwell’s 1984 evaporated with the disintegration of the monolithic Nazi and Communist regimes. By contrast, the 21st century’s defining image is more likely to have ordinary citizens using their personal telecommunications devices to keep Big Brother under continuing surveillance … In the “smart” media world, information no longer flows only from one to many. Instead, it flows simultaneously and instantaneously in many directions, from the bottom up as well as from the top down.