There's loads of blogs out there. These are written by people with a passion. A passion to think and write and create for nothing but the joy of doing it. Few get paid and few get recognition. I'm sure those that do never wanted it. Not the true bloggers.
Their followers can comment on the blog posts. Each blog can then become akin to a political party. Ideas are discussed. Thoughts are thought over. There can be criticism, praise or new thoughts.
Any person can now own their own free newspaper. The only cost is their time and their passion.
This leap in technology for democracy has been enabled by IT's advancement. But something else came with this advancement. The loss of privacy.
All our information can be monitored by the powerful. This today means governments with intelligence services. The 911 terrorist attacks allowed new legal powers and funding to implement new computer technologies which allow monitoring of large swathes of the population with little human effort as well as the ability to track people and information.
The human right to privacy was taken. We are naked to Big Brother. The police, the army, secret intelligence services, criminals and even local councils can spy on the citizens of any nation.
This was done for national security and the war on terror and other jingoistic ideas. In the end they took a right to protect the people, but the right they took was the right for a policeperson not to be able to rip off a person's clothes in the street. We are all naked underneath our clothes but to a few people in our life we show our naked forms. In the bedroom usually. Any person with the technology can spy into your bedroom and the antiterrorism laws mean the government could be watching you as you read this.
It is a terrible price to lose privacy to protect democracy. But there may be an opportunity in this challenge.
The opportunity is for democracy and true democracy. The opportunity is for the silent majority, those who often do not speak but hope that others speak for them.
The government can read our emails, our blogs, our telephone conversations and lots of other stuff. They do this to protect the people. Wouldn't it be amazing if they used this power to listen to the people?
The system of democracy in the uk is an election every 4 years. The parties make pledges and write a manifesto. People vote for many different reasons. But then that's it. The real peoples voice the rest of the time are the lobbyists and campaigners who try to influence through small things like writing a letter or going to a protest to funding campaigns or writing policy reports.
The problem is this means people with money or talent or passion or just a really bloody loud voice can hold influence more than the average person or the worst off. This is not a good foundation for democracy.
Many don't have the ability or confidence to voice their opinions. This is the silent majority. But they might say something to a friend or neighbour. They might comment on a blog or social network page. They might even write a blog.
This information could never be captured and processed in the way it can be today. Electronic survelliance, espionage technology, hacking and all that stuff make it possible. Take a software program like Autonomy. This is a commercial program, not a secret bit of software, which is somewhat capable of doing the stuff I'm taking about. It can process and interpret data, find important stuff then highlight it to the right people. It has applications for the media industry as well as corporations which depend on good internal communications. I came across as a way to stop child abuse and death. In the uk a black girl was tortured to death. Her name was Victoria Climbe. The state failed her and this software was one way they hoped her death would never have happened. I assume this sort of software is used for other applications, for example preventing suicide or monitoring the happiness of the nation.
But what if this survelliance culture could also be used to empower democracy and social change. What if the breech of basic rights to protect the people could be used to empower true democracy. I mean the pure shit. One person. One vote. We are all equal and we all have a voice which should be heard.
What if it was possible to have democracy without buildings for government and people with job titles. What if the only Minister of Parliment was the people?
What if the corruption of the ideals of democracy to protect the people could be the first step to a new democracy, an ideal democracy?
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