History repeats, and repeats, and repeats, and then you finally get a choice to repeat again...
Oh pompous futurists, how I loath thee.
The future is but not yet written upon stone,
and the past can only suggest
what future winds may burden to carry.
Human history has proceeded very differently for the different world cultures. Historical inequities cast a very long shadow on the modern world, as recent events have made manifest.
Long-term inequalities between competing societies are often won or lost by a massive technological innovation that puts that society at such an advantage that non-aligned societies cannot compete.
Such examples would include the invention of complex agriculture, gunpowder, space based satellite systems and nuclear weapons. And perhaps even the Internet. These technological innovations have in one step changed the balance of power between peoples. They are paradigm shifts in the ways that societies interact, and they form the foundation by which human history can be understood.
Historically, people on the planet Earth have been in a fight for survival. In the last fight one hundred years or so ago, there has been a growing awareness of the Earth as a meta-entity; a "being" of such vast complexity that all our knowledge fails to explain anything but the most rudimentary of processes in her systems.
For much of history, the belief of most of humanity was that the Earth was so vast as to make it impossible for the people of the Earth to have an effect upon her. But since the Industrial Revolution, and the destruction of many of the world's common resources, many have become aware that the Earth is not so impossible to influence.
This increased awareness of the Earth's vulnerability changed the scope of global relations between societies profoundly, and has lead to the awareness of a so-called global community, a community in which we all act and contribute whether we intend to or not.
How does this apply to the Internet?
Questions of inequality in the social arena are one of the most far-reaching questions knocking at the door of the Internet. Why have wealth and power become synonymous with access to the Internet, and why has the Internet become a vehicle for the ongoing concentration of wealth by western powers?
Such questions shed light onto the future arena for competition by societal forces.
Many of the same philosophies used by leaders in the "offline" arena to maintain power and control have become manifest recently in our online arena.
Recent legislation in the United States, where much of the "Internet" is concentrated, has not yet directly decreased the rights of individuals online. The "offline" agenda of protectionism threatens to gain a major foothold on Internet activities in the name of security, despite evidence to the contrary.
This extension of legislation onto the Internet is not to be taken lightly, as it is being recognized by those in the stirrups that the Internet is a major vehicle of communication for the World's peoples, and therefore a threat to the ongoing power relationships between peoples. It is remarkable how much attention Internet issues have garnished in recent months, especially political ones. It is also remarkable how little good information is available from independent sources, and how much of independent Internet communication has been overrun by corporate media.
The Internet allows people to converse easily. However, this ease of conversation doesn't simply overcome the ongoing altercations between societies. Indeed, most of the bias of individuals from competing societies translates consistently between peoples on opposite sites of the societal fence in online arenas just as if they were having a conversation in the street.
The Internet has the potential, through thoughtful publication, to direct these types of conversations. It is a channel of instant, open communication that has never before existed except in isolated circumstances, such as in the aftermath of calamities.
The recent terrorist attacks in New York have led to a slew of websites positioning themselves in one way or the other.
Even the corporate sector of the Net, which traditionally does not address "serious" issues on the Net, had a rash of American flags on their homepages.
The central question about the Internet that is still very far from being answered is what form the Net will take as it slowly percolates into non-western countries. A pervasive ignorance, or "us against them" mentality between peoples is a central force shaping the future of the Net.
The global community has been the focus of a great deal of winded discussion by marketers, bureaucrats, and others who spoke of the "Internet Revolution." It was almost accepted into established fact, especially in common culture in the US, that the Internet reaches a global audience, as the Internet is the first device to "tie the world together." But it does not reach much of a global audience at all. In fact, the vast majority of traffic generated on the Net still comes from within the United States.
The future is...
Let me drop the droning essay format for a moment and tell you all about a little project we ran for a while. Around 1996 I learned that a good friend of mine, Russel Tunder, was running a summer program for international students called the Student International Alliance.
His idea was simple.
Build a forum for the discussion of world issues, but target the youth 12-18 years of age from countries around the world between. Because the one unavoidable truth about any society is that youth of any society will be the ones who will shape society in the future, for the youth today are the National leaders of tomorrow. It's the most obvious way to create a unification of world powers, and a counterpoint to the historical struggles of peoples need to compete with each other.
It is only the power of the present that gives power to those in control. Their powers will lessen as they age and die, and then it will be time for another generation of leaders, some of whom you probably know already, to take their place. We were hoping that that generation might lead humanity differently, with a larger perspective on global issues and with less fear based leadership.
To do so, Russel and his organization formed the World Education web, a non-profit 503c corporation from which the Student International Alliance could operate.
I worked with several groups of kids over a number of years, teaching them the art of web design and development in an effort to encourage them to publish. These kids came from China, Russia, all over Europe, Indonesia, Kenya, and a half-dozen other countries. Many of them did not speak English.
Through this work I became aware of the differences among the world's peoples. In the environment of an almost literal Tower of Babel, I was amazed at how different these kids were.
But there was one thing that kept happening year after year. After a couple of weeks living together, members of one group would reach out to members of another group.
And so it began. In short time, the different groups were laughing and getting along together, and even the most lonely of hold-outs would be embraced by the other kids, whether they were receptive to it or not. A pervasive culture of acceptance permeated normal day-to-day activities.
It is not, my dear friends, so hard to imagine the same kinds of things happening because of activities on the Net. It is not impossible; in fact it is the greatest potentiality of the Internet.
The big picture
It is hard to imagine a world where the glory of one culture can exist without being at the expense of another. Surely human beings have a greater responsibility towards each other than to let such a pattern be the foundation of future civilization.
Someday technology will progress to the point where cultural boundaries can be explored and broken, and the World's peoples will know each other without pain of suffering, or the defeat of invading armies.
There are three ways for society to progress.
In one vision, it will be ruled by fear, and the World's peoples will remain at war until destruction is sufficient to stop them from fighting.
The most prominent possibility is that our advanced civilizations will last for a while before fading into history, the victims of our own mediocre social skills and social entropy.
In the last, through hard work and empathy towards our fellow beings, we will attain truly lasting peace and we'll be able to move on to more important matters.
If you were to consider what the sum of all of the work of independent publishers is, would you consider the World a better place for them? Perhaps.
The level playing field of the Internet for the exploration of culture is one of the ultimate potentialities. The only existing technological vehicle for real cultural understanding is the Internet. It's important for the Independent publication community to consider the long-term ramifications of the sum of our work.
The vision must be forward
The United Nations designated 1999 as the year of peace. It was to be the last year of the 20th century, and the UN wanted to make sure we ended it facing forwards towards a peaceful future.
In 2000, the UN declared the first year of the new millennium as the year of dialogue between peoples. There were cultural celebrations, events, and press releases. But the fanfare came and went, and soon the reality of the world we were creating became unbelievably real.
There was even a brief interruption in the process of developing Independents Day 2001, because several of the members disappeared, too swept up in the events of NYC to participate. And for those who were left to communicate, there was very much to talk about, but very little to say.
The Independent publishing community is at the brink of one of the most interesting explorations in the history of humanity. And they are at that brink during one of the darkest eras in modern history.
A single individual can literally posses the ability to influence the outcome of world events. With the proper motivation, some basic publication skills, and a desktop computer, syndicated publication and large-scale distribution can be attained. This was previously only possible with a massive printing press and multinational distribution through corporations.
The original vision of the Internet, that vision that made so many people excited about the potential of the Net to change business, thought and history, is very real. As we progress towards the future, it is up to the independent publishers, those who bear the burden of alternate perspectives, to figure out what form the future of communication will take.
As the world gets more and more wired, the importance of objective, independent communication only increases. Despite the slowdowns in adoption, the Internet is fast becoming a very powerful political force; one that unfortunately, is the subject of another article.
We should look towards the Internet to be a vehicle of free speech in the West, and look towards future versions of the Internet to be vehicles of free speech for all peoples on Planet Earth.
The possibility of the reduction of societal tensions directly hinges on the ability of all peoples to understand each other, a capacity which only the Internet currently has the potential to provide. It is up to you, the readers, the publishers, and the developers of the independent web to manifest the future you see fit, through your websites, your projects, and your activities.
