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November 14, 2003
Not just activist, not just participatory, but connected
Posted by David Weinberger
I was at a day-long conversation about emergent democracy a couple of days ago and found myself arguing against talking about the (possibly) new grassroots as a form of "activism" or "participatory democracy." From my highly limited viewpoint, what's (seemingly) happening around the Dean campaign is better understood as
connected democracy. It's not simply that connecting lowers the hurdle when compared with either activism or participating. More important, the
rewards of connected democracy are different. Yeah, we (pretty please) throw King W out, but we also get a relationship to the others walking in the same direction. We're friends, we're buddies, we know one another by (login) name. That by itself is a powerful motivator.
Of course that sense of connection is nothing new. In fact, there's nothing older in our history than our sense of connection to others. But we haven't been trusted to organize ourselves -- i.e., to invent things to do and then go do them together -- as we have in the Dean campaign. And, more important, to talk about e-democracy only in terms of activism and participation misses that which will carry this campaign beyond Election Day, win (hooray!) or lose (deplete the Strategic Prozac reserve).
Comments (6)
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1. Janne Jalkanen on November 14, 2003 5:06 PM writes...
But can we really rely on any form of emergent democracy, when the powers that be are so ready to ignore anything that is not suitable to them?
http://www.ecyrd.com/ButtUgly/Wiki.jsp?page=Main_blogentry_121103_1
Permalink to Comment2. David Weinberger on November 14, 2003 5:13 PM writes...
Clearly we can't rely on anything, but I'm pretty damn discouraged about where the usual political methods have gotten us so far. Even when we win we lose. Emergent democracy offers some hope. Some.
Permalink to Comment3. Bill Seitz on November 15, 2003 7:39 AM writes...
Thanks, David, for the inspiration. I hope people learn about the potential for "doing it for themselves".
http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/z2003-11-15-WeinbergerConnectedDemocracy
Permalink to Comment4. Lucas Fletcher on November 15, 2003 11:43 PM writes...
Heartwarming and all, but misses the true potential power of social software: unmediated consensus. Rallying around the media's chosen with OS-X's and aesthetically pleasing blog pages... That may be personally enjoyable, but not politically empowering.
Permalink to Comment5. aaron wall on November 16, 2003 4:07 PM writes...
Many times large corporations have been controlled one post at a time. When the adsense program added "like search" links at the bottom of the adds people posted their opinions. Things changed in a single day.
While it is certainly harder to control the entire government that way, I am possitive that Dean will win - because of the blog.
Permalink to Comment6. ulises mejias on November 18, 2003 3:25 PM writes...
We need to revamp representative democracy (who is it representing, anyway?), and move beyond it altogether to something better. Yes, technology can play a part. It has done so in numerous times in history already (a well-documented one being the role of print in the Protestant movement against the privilege of the Church). But technology will only be an ingredient in the formula. We cannot hope to change the real world by limiting our actions to the electronic one. We have made great progress in forming and facilitating online communities, but have lagged behind in figuring out how these new states of consciousness can productively reintegrate people to their geographic communities, their neighborhoods.
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Permalink to Commenthttp://ideant.typepad.com/ideant/2003/10/emergent_democr.html