Vote Google For Democracy Says Jonathan Freedland (Web World Map)
THE Internet is changing the way we live.Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, says the company’s ambition is to know so much about us all, it will be able to answer the question: “What should I do tomorrow?”
Google is now “the man”. Although we could stymie the corporate plot by exercising our free will…
Or legislate against Google. What does the Internet mean for politics?
Currently, geography matters a lot: we vote in the areas we physically inhabit. But if millions of people are linked by MySpace, why is that not a political community? I can foresee a future in which national diasporas, for example, operate the way territorial societies do now. If ever there is a peace agreement to ratify, perhaps the entire Palestinian people, dispersed across the world, would take part in a referendum. The current iron link between democracy and territoriality might grow weaker.
So a world along the lines of the web? Not an orignal idea there. Freedland should know that on the web there are no new ideas – just new ways of repackaging the old ones…
Pic: here
Posted: 30th, May 2007 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
