Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: Movements to Die For
Author: Joshua Allen Posted: 9/27/2000; 2:03:32 AM Topic: scriptingNews outline for 9/26/2000 Msg #: 21769 (In response to 21768) Prev/Next: 21768 / 21770
You wrote in your contribution "give us", "the nation" and I read with the right filter because the context and I know that you were american.Oooops!! You are right, I certainly let some cultural bias slip through there! I almost mentioned France in my original post; things like the Gnome Liberation Front tell me that the land which taught America about "liberte, egalite, fraternite" and donated Lafayette to our revolution has not forgotten how to revolt.
[Or if I was really bad, I could respond "What, a frenchman who actually knows how to get to the Internet from Minitel or Infonie?!?] :-)
I also agree that Kennedy's vision was perpetuated by the Cold War, but I think that, just as Olympic sports can be driven by nationalistic motives, it is noble to divert that nationalism into something other than killing people. At least Kennedy did not say, "By the end of this decade, we will eradicate all Russians". Going to space was something that even the peaceful could latch onto, and kids could dream of one day becoming astronauts and explorers. So I think that was a clever way to use the cold-war fervor to accomplish some good (within america at least).
Political parties in the U.S. mostly the same? You are right about that. Nader is one you would probably identify with more, while Libertarians party is more "capitalist".
The Web doesn't meet any good criteria for a big idea. The vision has to be measurable and objective so people can rally. "man on the moon .. by the end of the decade". The web is certainly a major change sweeping the world, but so many people are trying to attach their own memes to this idea. I don't see any unifying or galvanizing purpose yet.
As for ideas which have galvanized people across international lines, I suppose there are very few. Eradication of the Jews is about the only shared goal that pops up periodically..
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