Will our democracy ever look like the internet?

[yurbud]

With far less government secrecy, more people participating in more decision-making, and even wikilegislation?

I suspect that fear of those kind of changes, not for specific crimes they have committed, is why the government has come down so hard on Bradley Manning, Aaron Schwartz, and are so eager to get their hands on Julian Assange.

And they fear it because when information can no longer be the exclusive property of a few, to dribble out or hide to their own advantage, money and power are not far behind.

Will we have the government that the few fear so much in our lifetime?

5 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	It will come but not in our lifetime
	0 (0%)
	It will come in a couple of decades
	2 (40%)
	It will happen as soon as those in power make another mistake on the order of magnitude of the Iraq War or the Wall Street, crash, bailout, and non-prosecution OR major revelations from behind the scenes of those events
	1 (20%)
	Those with power now can easily prevent anything of the kind from happening ever
	2 (40%)
	other
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[Recursion]

1. You mean easily misled, full of trolls, and incapable of focusing on one thing for 5 seconds?

Not to mention a haven of racism, sexism, anti-LGBT bigotry, and religious hatred?

God, I hope not.

[JaneyVee]

3. And that's just freerepublic!

[yurbud]

9. ha!

[RobertEarl]

12. So.. it is like the internet already, eh, Recursion?

Our democracy is easily misled, full of trolls, and incapable of focusing on one thing for 5 seconds. It hasn't solved global warming, ended the ridiculous defense spending, is still full of racism, sexism and LGBT bigotry.

The problem is the few representatives we have can hide behind closed doors. The door openers as alluded to in the OP are welcome to be empowered by anyone who wishes to have the closed doors cracked open. Right?

[stevenleser]

13. That is why I voted other. I don't see this Utopia described in the OP. nt

[zbdent]

2. If it were to become "the internet", I can just see it ... I'd go somewhere to vote,

but it would just be a porn site ...

[yurbud]

11. that would increase voter participation

but then we'd need tissues in the voting booth.

[zbdent]

16. No smoking in public buildings in Ohio ...

that could be a problem ...

[OceanEcosystem]

4. I have to agree with Recursion

Even if democracy resembled the Internet, that might not necessarily be a good thing.

[Robb]

5. Want to vote? Vote 4 VI@GrAa!!

[Agnosticsherbet]

6. With everyone being tracked 24-7...

and everything they do being put in a database and sold to the highest bidder so someone can sell them crap?

I hope not.

[Recursion]

7. All infrastructure run by for-profit companies in a benevolent corporatocracy

(And, yes, for the most part it actually is fairly benevolent, which is even more dangerous in a way.)

Where OP sees Wikipedia, which I acknowledge is a wonder of the modern world, I see 4chan, which is a circle of Hell.

[Agnosticsherbet]

8. It would be closer to a fusion of Dante and Machiavelli ...

than Jefferson and Marx.

[yurbud]

10. even 4chan has its upside if you watch the founder's TED talk

[msongs]

14. over priced and slow compared to international standards lol nt

[yurbud]

15. you're right--we've already got that. I should have said "like Wikipedia"