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May 13, 2006
Self-expression today vs. 175 years ago
Delivering the commencement address at a college today, Arizona Sen. John McCain neatly summed up the role of self-expression in America and its often impolite nature:
"Ours is a noisy, contentious society, and always has been, for we love our liberties much. And among those liberties we love most, particularly so when we are young, is our right to self-expression. That passion for self-expression sometimes overwhelms our civility, and our presumption that those with whom we have strong disagreements, wrong as they might be, believe that they, too, are answering the demands of their conscience."
Referring to his own brash political ways as a younger man, McCain said: "It's a pity there wasn't a blogosphere then. I would have felt much at home in the medium."
Political debate requires the thickest of skins, as does wading into the freewheeling opinion pools found on Slashdot or Digg, or some discussion forums within Wikipedia. The notion of free expression, especially in the United States, has a history of rancor, some of which is best left in the history books.
Take the year 1831: Andrew Jackson was president then. Congress had passed the Indian Removal Act a year earlier; Jackson didn't display much statesmanship in 1831 as Native American "savages" were being forcibly removed from their homelands:
What good man would prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages to our extensive Republic, studded with cities, towns and prosperous farms, embellished with all the improvements which art can devise or industry execute, occupied by more than 12,000,000 happy people, and filled with the blessings of libery, civilization and religion?
In 1831, Nat Turner decided he'd had enough of being a slave and went on a killing spree, killing some 55 white people. That sparked furious, decades-long debates about the moral, political and economic costs of slavery, not to mention the roles of federal and state governments, and some ovelry aggressive expansionist policies. Some 30 years later, much of that culminated in a four-year American Civil War.
Also in 1831, the 25-year-old Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville was traveling across the States gathering research for what would become one of the most pertinent books about democracy ever written: "Democracy in America." One of his keen observations:
"In towns it is impossible to prevent men from assembling, getting excited together and forming sudden passionate resolves. Towns are like great meeting houses with all the inhabitants as members. In them the people wield immense influence over their magistrates and often carry their desires into execution without intermediaries."
These pointers arrive via Louis P. Masur, whose book 1831 makes the case that 1831 was a turning-point year in American history and the maturity of democracy.
Fast-forward 175 years later to 2006, where it is impossible to prevent men, women and children from assembling, getting excited and forming sudden passionate resolves around shoes, discontinued soda, notebooks, or digital video recorders. Or just about anything that stirs one's passion and creative energies. The ability to engage in such hobbyist pursuits among assembled groups online is perhaps one reflection of the stability-inducing nature of democracy.
Or crass commercialism. Your opinion may vary.
The discourse inside the democratized communities dedicated toward products, brands or people, of course, may get contentious. Passionate self-expression, like democracy, can be messy.
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» Quote of the Day from NoelHeikkinen.com
//MOOD: Noisy //PODCAST: Radio Clash 71: Sexy Excitetime Chicken Dance Feeling, Yes! by --Radio Clash-- From Church of the Customer Blog. "Ours is a noisy, contentious society, and always has been, for we love our liberties much. And among... [Read More]
» UnPC Quote of the Day from NoelHeikkinen.com
//MOOD: Um //PODCAST: Radio Clash 71: Sexy Excitetime Chicken Dance Feeling, Yes! by --Radio Clash-- Again, from Church of the Customer Blog. What good man would prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages... [Read More]
Indeed,
Blog is making assembling of groups possible. And giving positive flow for youth energy. Imagine the most brilliant and immaginative brains working on expansionist ideas/ideals instead of working for Google, yahoo, microsoft of a startup trying to make it big as GYM.
