I found this article interesnting about internet and democracy. A really new point of view.

http://radio.weblogs.com/0107127/stories/2003/03/10/deeHockOnBloggingAndTheNewConstitution.html

What do you think?

Thanks

My own view of Religion differs somewhat in regard to your binary opposition, although I didn’t quite explain this. Many religious texts are in fact dialogue, some more Socratic than others: for example the Sermon on the Mount. Less Socratic texts include Song of Songs, a dialogue between two lovers; even Paul’s letters, the most authoritarian texts in the New Testament, are dialogue, albeit Paul chastising his less dogmatic brethren and probably misrepresenting the opposing voice (although this can be found, to some extent, in Gnostic texts).

The authoritarianism we see in religion comes, I believe, after the fact (in Christianity it is solidified in the Fourth Ecumenical Council) and is an effort to consolidate power. I don’t see this as something essential to religion and I believe such could happen with new media itself– if bandwidth, to give one example, were to be regulated in opposition to Net Neutrality.

So I see too many qualifications to agree with your formulation. This website, for example, rightfully acts as an authority on IA matters and the author of the above article is given, by its readers–again rightfully–credence over this poster.

However, I do agree with the gist of that new media represents a paradigm shift that needs to be understood on its own terms, and those terms must be understood in context of our media culture and the loosening of control the web represents for stakeholders in traditional media.

Really, it is a mere philosophical difference that probably amounts to nothing, therefore my reluctance to post at length. I apologize if I came across as sarcastic. That was not my intention.

What’s your point, exactly? You basically agree but then you say that it’s all just rhetorical tricks and then you say that I am some authoritarian dude myself. I don’t get it. I can assure you that I mean what I say and that I am interested in hearing what people think. Religion=Authority, Socratic Philosophy=Dialogue, and the parallel to old media/new media doesn’t seem like a rhetorical trick to me at all. I put a lot of thought in this. If you are not just some religious guy that feels offended in his religious feelings, that is if you really have a point other than just wanting to put me down, you need to be more specific. I am not against learning from my users you know, and from what Google tells me you might have something to say…