So, tonight, the photos I posted on a Croatian hiking page on FB (Planinarski kutak) generated their 200th like, a relatively small feat in a world where a gazillion people follow certain celebrities and icons on various social media, but still impressive in the sense that my previous record for likes on FB was somewhere in the mid-30s. And also impressive in the sense that pictures of the mountains in our state have somehow resonated with strangers residing on the other side of the planet. That such communication could have so easily occurred would have been mindboggling to me in my youth. All of this brings to mind a discussion I once had with my mother as a teenager. Riding in our green Chevy Nova in Tacoma, probably 40 years ago, I asked mom what was the biggest thing that ever happened in her life. She answered fairly quickly, World War II. And I had no difficulty in understanding the why of that answer. It probably was the biggest thing that shaped her generation, and our planet, during that period. Of course, I did not wait for her to ask me the same question. I was, after all, a teenager, and had my own opinions. Man on the moon, was my response. I had little doubt that, in the long run, interplanetary space travel would ultimately out-shadow any geopolitical confrontation that had occurred in the preceding years. But as I grew older, and the 70s gave way to the 80s, and the 80s gave way to the 90s, and we entered the new millennium (with the corresponding technological achievements) , I started to form a different opinion. It wasnt the war that was a game-changer, and it wasnt shooting a tin can to the moon with a few people in it. It was the internet. That was the most important thing that happened in my life. Knowledge is power, and by definition, information is power. In ancient times, information was accessible to only a few, and the most powerful. Every piece of technology that has wrested away this information from the political elite --- be it the printing press with Gutenbergs Bible or Thomas Paines Common Sense, or television with Edward Murrow, or newspapers covering Watergate --- has struck a blow against the old order, and given the common person more power. We see it today, on Facebook or Twitter, and in Syria, the Ukraine, Mexico, Pakistan, with the Tea Party and with Edward Snowden and the NSA. My ability to connect about hiking with over 200 Croatians I do not know is, in itself, of little consequence. But it is a symbol of what is happening now, and what, if we are lucky, will save us and this planet. As I have aged, I have become more convinced than ever that change will not happen from the top down, but from the bottom up. Faith in politicians, in a certain sense, is hopeless. There is too much money involved. This is why local ordinances regarding minimum wage laws, or air pollution standards, are crucial, despite their insignificant, short term impact, on the worlds problems. Marshall McLuhan was right. The medium is the message. Over the last 24 hours, I have connected with hundreds of strangers in Croatia whom I would have never met if I had just lived in my mother or fathers era. But today, I --- and we ---- have at my disposal a brave new world, a world the governments and politicians cannot control. Lets reach out to our neighbors. Not just ones next door. but our brothers and sisters around the world. I look forward to that day when the politicians realize they are fighting over nothing ... that we have left them in the dust.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 07:47:03 +0000
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