Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

Things are breaking in the US of A but government is paralyzed. A devisive Bush Administration has broken everything possible and exacerbated political gridlock in Washington. Americans are hungry for consensus and Ms. Clinton will win because she is a centrist with experience who promises to be a president who can work with Congress within the constitution to solve building problems in America. Iraq, the growing economic malaise, crumbling infrastructure, immigration, and health care are all complex, intractable problems that require a high degree of consensus to fix.

Moreover, the twin problems of climate change and the end of cheap energy will dominate her presidency; these global scale problems change everything, require decisive American leadership, and require a massive transformation that is impossible today.

Fortunately for Ms. Clinton and all Americans, digital technology promises a new much more effective democracy where intractable problems can be rapidly defined, solutions advocated and debated, and consensus reached in an open and empowering process.

On any subject there is highest level, global standard, American expertise that currently is being wasted, marginalized by a captured, overly ideological political system. The emerging web 2.0 toolkit will facilitate inclusive, effective citizen participation, reinvigorating democracy just in time.  

In EVERYTHING IS MISCELLANEOUS , his wonderfully erudite, prescient and highly informative book on how digital technology changes information sorting, processing and decision making, David Weinberger describes
"how we're pulling ourselves together now that we've blown ourselves to bits". Consensus can be built again in a reasonable democratic process.

Corporations are using collaborative web page building today as a means of amassing and sorting information on difficult problems quickly and with input that transcends office hierarchies. Such collaborative wiki building is a powerful tool for reaching consensus in both understanding the problem and in evaluating possible solutions.

Written, iterative debate in access authorized wikis can greatly enhance, focus and speed up the peer review process. Such a competitive climate change forum, for example, could systematically reduce the non-scientifically tenable until there is a rational consensus on this contentious subject; in such a forum both the deniers and extreme alarmists must compete: must put up scientific evidence or shut up.

Combine the very latest online and transparent scientific consensus on (for climate change examples) risk probabilities of runaway climate change or carbon sequestering technology or the effects of a range of carbon prices on a future economy with the burgeoning 2.0 capacity to poll Americans, for Americans to vote for their choices, and you have just one example of how the net can empower democrats.

There are visionary leaders who sweep the public up in setting their agenda and there are imperious leaders who conspire to create their own history (like the bimbos who sought to remake the oil important Middle East by regime change and nation building in Iraq). Hillary Clinton will be a great American president because she will lead in getting Americans all on the same page in formulating and implementing innovative solutions. Digital technology promises a consensual democracy where government can work effectively again and Ms. Clinton is ready for change and so are Americans.

bill (at) pacificfringe.net