Power To The (Wired) People
October 17, 2004 | By Mitch Kapor
Source: internet archives
Our nation is founded on the principle of self-government -- a government "of, by, and for the people" in the words of Abraham Lincoln -- but we know in our gut that this ideal is in such peril today that we have to ask whether self-government is even a meaningful concept in 2004 as it was to the Greeks who invented democracy 2,500 years ago.
Greek and Roman traditions inspired the Founding Fathers when they framed the Constitution and brought democracy into the modern world. But if you could reanimate Thomas Jefferson, James Madison or Alexander Hamilton in present-day Washington, they would be horrified. They would find a system both corrupt and dysfunctional, one that has 13 lobbyists for every representative, in which money buys undue influence and the real deals are made out of sight of the American public.
Now, it's easy to look at this process and blame the politicians. They are certainly culpable. But let's look at the other end of the Washington purse strings. Who buys the politicians? It's the corporations who would rather game the system than create something of value in a competitive marketplace.
Make no mistake, these corporations and their leaders aren't going to Washington to innovate or compete. Just the opposite, they're going to stifle innovation and handcuff competition. Everyone's there -- from the fossil- fuel industry stifling alternative-energy development to big insurance and medical companies handcuffing health care.
Or, how about the intellectual property cartel composed of the big telecom companies, entertainment industry and now some members of the computer industry? They want to protect archaic business models, shackle ideas to one owner for perpetuity, thereby hindering the free flow of information necessary for both dynamic markets and self-government.
We were never meant to have a highly centralized government. Power was meant to be maintained by checks and balances not just in the three branches of federal government but by the states, the states by county and local governments. And the final check was the American people -- us.
