dannno
11-30-2012, 12:52 PM
http://www.independent.com/news/2012/nov/28/something-new-under-sun/#c86669
Something New Under the Sun
Part 1 in a Series of Essays on Government
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
By Tam Hunt
“The right to swing my fist ends where the other man’s nose begins.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes
The big debate in politics is, and has always been, about the appropriate size and role of government. The polarized state of today’s debate is exemplified by Fox News’s overly strident critiques of seemingly any government solutions to shared problems, and MSNBC’s apparent defense of activist government in many areas of life through their ongoing series of “lean forward” blurbs featuring their star TV personalities. These two relatively new TV channels also exemplify the growth of separate spheres of facts and opinions, or “filter bubbles,” enjoyed by those on the left and right, which is itself a major problem.
Fortunately, a new approach to this perennial debate is emerging, which marries the best of left and right. This new approach arises from the increasing power of networked and crowd-sourced solutions to many of the collective problems we face in today’s world. The rise of crowd-sourced solutions is, in turn, based on our new tech-based society, in which information is rapidly becoming free and access to that free information is rapidly becoming universal.
There is a risk in naming this new approach to political philosophy, but some have suggested “peer progressivism” or “progressive libertarianism.” I have also used the term “wiki democracy” to describe the outcome of this new philosophy and these new tech tools that are rapidly enhancing our democracies around the world.
I’m going to use the term “isocracy,” however, in this essay because it lacks the freight of the other labels mentioned. Isocracy means “rule by equals,” which pretty much sums up the gist of this new political philosophy. What to many people sound like contradictory philosophies (progressivism and libertarianism) come together under this new approach. Isocrats believe in small government, but also that we’re all in this together and we should help others where we can.
This really is a new political philosophy because it rests on truly new technological tools. As our technological tools change so should our politics and our philosophies.
The basic idea of isocracy is that a lot of things that government has often done can and should be crowd-sourced – that is, performed by the crowd, the masses, rather than by government or corporations. This is different than the historically right-wing tendency to want to privatize government, but it is nonetheless a type of privatization. Rather than privatizing by selling off government assets and responsibilities to corporations, however, crowd-sourcing looks to a broader universe of entities than just traditional corporate interests to take the place of traditional government. Crowd-sourcing generally relies on regular people like me and you, but it can include a variety of entities as part of the “crowd,” including individuals, civic groups, corporations, and government entities, all working together to find creative and efficient solutions. We are increasingly crowd-sourcing government and we should be actively looking for ways to accelerate this trend.
An innocuous but useful example: Boston pioneered the “adopt a fire hydrant” program, which allows any individual, business, or community group to adopt a fire hydrant and ensure that it remains accessible to firefighters in winter by shoveling snow after a storm. This saves firefighters the trouble of doing this themselves, on a city-wide basis. Chicago, Buenos Aires, and Honolulu (for tsunami sirens instead of hydrants) have followed suit.
More (and comments): http://www.independent.com/news/2012/nov/28/something-new-under-sun/#c86669
Something New Under the Sun
Part 1 in a Series of Essays on Government
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
By Tam Hunt
“The right to swing my fist ends where the other man’s nose begins.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes
The big debate in politics is, and has always been, about the appropriate size and role of government. The polarized state of today’s debate is exemplified by Fox News’s overly strident critiques of seemingly any government solutions to shared problems, and MSNBC’s apparent defense of activist government in many areas of life through their ongoing series of “lean forward” blurbs featuring their star TV personalities. These two relatively new TV channels also exemplify the growth of separate spheres of facts and opinions, or “filter bubbles,” enjoyed by those on the left and right, which is itself a major problem.
Fortunately, a new approach to this perennial debate is emerging, which marries the best of left and right. This new approach arises from the increasing power of networked and crowd-sourced solutions to many of the collective problems we face in today’s world. The rise of crowd-sourced solutions is, in turn, based on our new tech-based society, in which information is rapidly becoming free and access to that free information is rapidly becoming universal.
There is a risk in naming this new approach to political philosophy, but some have suggested “peer progressivism” or “progressive libertarianism.” I have also used the term “wiki democracy” to describe the outcome of this new philosophy and these new tech tools that are rapidly enhancing our democracies around the world.
I’m going to use the term “isocracy,” however, in this essay because it lacks the freight of the other labels mentioned. Isocracy means “rule by equals,” which pretty much sums up the gist of this new political philosophy. What to many people sound like contradictory philosophies (progressivism and libertarianism) come together under this new approach. Isocrats believe in small government, but also that we’re all in this together and we should help others where we can.
This really is a new political philosophy because it rests on truly new technological tools. As our technological tools change so should our politics and our philosophies.
The basic idea of isocracy is that a lot of things that government has often done can and should be crowd-sourced – that is, performed by the crowd, the masses, rather than by government or corporations. This is different than the historically right-wing tendency to want to privatize government, but it is nonetheless a type of privatization. Rather than privatizing by selling off government assets and responsibilities to corporations, however, crowd-sourcing looks to a broader universe of entities than just traditional corporate interests to take the place of traditional government. Crowd-sourcing generally relies on regular people like me and you, but it can include a variety of entities as part of the “crowd,” including individuals, civic groups, corporations, and government entities, all working together to find creative and efficient solutions. We are increasingly crowd-sourcing government and we should be actively looking for ways to accelerate this trend.
An innocuous but useful example: Boston pioneered the “adopt a fire hydrant” program, which allows any individual, business, or community group to adopt a fire hydrant and ensure that it remains accessible to firefighters in winter by shoveling snow after a storm. This saves firefighters the trouble of doing this themselves, on a city-wide basis. Chicago, Buenos Aires, and Honolulu (for tsunami sirens instead of hydrants) have followed suit.
More (and comments): http://www.independent.com/news/2012/nov/28/something-new-under-sun/#c86669