Democracy Is Not Personal

Yesterday I canceled my MySpace page. Then I cancelled my DetroitCity.com page. Then I canceled my PayPal account. All on a whim. No Regrets. There's an incredibly satisfying feeling I get from paring away the digital clutter in my life. I'll keep my blogger account because I think it's healthy to reflect - not in the meaningless mall-chat of MySpace - but really think out loud on the page. The internet's great and all, but it's not everything and it's sucking too much time out of my life.

Anyway, I've been reading the futurist Douglas Rushkoff for a good many years now and his latest point, which he makes in a speech @ The Personal Democracy Forum, I think, is a good one - that "Personal Democracy" is an oxymoron, a bill of goods sold to the masses to make them feel virtually empowered while keeping them actually separated and weakened as a political force in the real world.

Rushkoff says we should consider our democracy as an open source proposition that can be altered and changed by ACTIVE participation. I think it's a fancy way of saying, "Get off your $%^&* computer and get INVOLVED!" Your computer is only as good as it connects you to real people, real issues, real relationships. It's a tool, not a way of life. I need to remember that.