Re: [ga] Re: Interesting Times

["J-F C. (Jefsey) Morfin" <jefsey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 06:04 27/01/2005, Danny Younger wrote:
> There was a man who was laid to rest in a corner of his small farm in New 
> Rochelle not far from where I live.  He died in poor health and poverty as 
> an alcoholic and as an outcast.  He never established a political society 
> or organization and was not responsible for a single reforming measure 
> even though he was elected to public office.  But this man will not be 
> forgotten -- he authored the pamphlet, "Common Sense"; he wrote "The 
> Rights of Man" as well as "The Age of Reason" -- he was Thomas Paine.
>
> Paine taught us that each age of man has the right to establish a 
> political system which satisfies its needs.  Our Internet Age also 
> requires a system that will satisfy our needs.  There are times when 
> society requires a firebrand, a Thomas Paine, to point out that which we 
> all know, but often fail to vocalize.  We have our firebrands in the WSIS 
> process, in the blogs and in the civil society leadership.  Why is it 
> important they have a voice?... so that common sense and rights are 
> brought to the forefront of a new revolution, a revolution that is calling 
> for transparency and democracy in the management of the Internet.

I think you said all when you said "There was a man" and then "We have our 
firebrands". What we have to learn to live with - and the GA, IDNO, 
icannatlarge efforts shown it, is the transition from a single Paine in an 
open world to a large number of Paines in a single globe. Not that easy. 
Using our old solutions of hierarchy and democracy does not work in the 
granularity and the subsidiairty of our today's world: getting defined and 
accepted representation by competent motivation (consumer organizations, 
@large, etc.)

jfc