[Vision2020] Open source and related concepts

[g. crabtree]

" Why in the Age of the Internet, when anyone could have determined in an hour or two of Internet research, that the claims of the Bush administration in 2002 that Saddam had WMD that posed a credible and immediate threat to the national security of the USA, and had ties to Al Qaeda,  were very doubtful propositions, did this not result in strong hesitation in the US Congress and the US public, about invading Iraq?"

I'm not sure why Mr. Moffett attaches such an inordinately large amount of time to the necessary research. A quick look see at The Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, or Moooveon.org and you'd have had your head straight in about twenty minutes tops!

g
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ted Moffett 
  To: Paul Rumelhart 
  Cc: Vision2020 
  Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 1:31 AM
  Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Open source and related concepts



  Paul Rumelhart wrote:

  There is a site called metagovernment (http://www.metagovernment.org) which is
  starting to ramp up that aims to garner community involvement in every
  aspect of governing ourselves.  I don't know a lot about it yet, but I'm
  excited about the idea.  From what I gather, you basically band together
  into small communities based on geographical area (presumably Moscow
  would be one such area), and you work as a group to write the laws as
  you want them to be.  There is a mechanism where the best ideas float to
  the top, and there are forums where every aspect of the law is hammered
  out.  The idea is that these laws, and the discussions that are involved
  in them, can be held up as a template for our legislatures to use to
  create local laws.  There is no real power there, all there is is an
  example that in all likelihood will be a much "better" law than that
  which our politicians would come up with, since it was developed by
  those who would be most affected by and who are most knowledgeable of
  the topics.
   
     When this project gets off the ground, I'm going to follow it and see if
    it works.  My gut instinct tells me that it will.  It's the same reason
    that Firefox the browser is better than Internet Explorer (at least in
    my opinion) - the community knows what they want and that drives the
    design.  A monolithic company, just like a monolithic government, is
    limited - whereas a group of intelligent individuals with like interests
    and whole ranges of expertise to draw on can be nigh unstoppable.  It's
    the difference between having to accept what is shoved down your throat,
    and choosing to use what others have built together for you to use as
    you see fit.

    If this takes off, I'll be hoping to get some of the people on this list
    involved in the project.  It is basically what Vision2020 purports to
    want to be - a place where our vision of the future of our town can be
    expressed in a positive way.

    Any thoughts?

    Paul

  Your "gut instinct tells me that it will?"  Wow!  Your faith in the ultimate goal of this effort is admirable.  

  But do you think this effort will stop fundamentalist religious congregations from voting in lock step to control local or state government in Idaho?  Do you think they will join in, or oppose, this egalitarian anarchist vision of law making?  They use the Internet to promote their version of dogmatism and thought control.  Consider the Idaho Family Values Alliance, well known for promoting Idaho's 2006 Super DOMA.  Moscow's support for domestic partner benefits is mentioned on their web page:

  http://www.idahovaluesalliance.com/
  ---------------------
  I do have a thought, now that you asked, that relates to the often heard claim that the Internet is a democratising egalitarian liberation technology.  Why in the Age of the Internet, when anyone could have determined in an hour or two of Internet research, that the claims of the Bush administration in 2002 that Saddam had WMD that posed a credible and immediate threat to the national security of the USA, and had ties to Al Qaeda,  were very doubtful propositions, did this not result in strong hesitation in the US Congress and the US public, about invading Iraq?  How were so many misled into believing these fabrications, exaggerations and distortions about Iraq WMD, and Saddam's ties to Al Qaeda, when credible sources on the Internet could have shed doubt on Bush's claims?

  It seems that the Internet is only as useful as the critical and/or investigative thinking skills of those using it; teaching critical independent thinking is fundamental to the education of the citizenry in a democracy, no computers or Internet required.  How did the greatest thinkers in human history achieve what they did without computers, after all?  

  Which is not to say that the Internet is not a wonderful tool; but it is merely a tool, that can be used to control and mislead, as well as enlighten, educate and liberate.  

  It is well known that porno is one of the dominant activities on the Internet.  Now there's egalitarian political liberation for you!  What a diversion from the responsible investigations that should have concerned every citizen about Iraq WMDs and ties to Al Qaeda, during the 2002 run up to this disastrous and cruel war!

  Ted Moffett
   


------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  =======================================================
   List services made available by First Step Internet, 
   serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
                 http://www.fsr.net                       
            mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
  =======================================================
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20080408/c4e1147c/attachment.html