> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
> Behalf Of John D. Giorgis
[snip]
> In particular, I consider Modern* Western Civilization to be fundamentally
> underpinned by perhaps the most important quote in the United States'
> Declaration of Independence:
> "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
> equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
> Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
> Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among
> Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..."
I don't disagree in the least. And those principles are worth fighting for.
At the risk of repeating myself, I think it is a constant challenge, in a
changing world, to reinvent the practical systems that act out those
beliefs. I want to be very conservative with regard to those principles --
I wouldn't be the least bit embarrassed to be regarded as far to the right,
so to speak, as far as they are concerned. At the same time, I see a lot of
structural corruption in the systems that have evolved with them. The area
that concerns me the most is the media because the "consent of the governed"
is impossible when the governed are getting their information from sources
that have become so incredibly self-serving and owned by so few. As an old
saying among media critics goes, the media don't tell people what to think,
they tell people what to think about.
I'm not *sure* that a system will evolve to be as different as our is from
medievalism. But I believe it is important to be open to radical ideas,
remembering that they don't necessarily mean the end of national or cultural
identity. Many nations around the world have existed through radical
changes in their political and economic systems over the centuries, even
though the very notion of a nation has changed. As I have said before, I
see the Internet as a portent -- it has rapidly become the foundation for a
great deal of commerce and information exchange, yet it is extra-national.
It's not at all clear that nations can regulate it, tax it, etc. Nor can
the five big media companies, I trust. It will force us into some radical
reinventions, I expect.
Nick
