Americans Doing Something
Spirit of America is serving a
communal need we've felt since 9/11/01. Do you remember that dark September
when you wanted to do something–anything–to make a difference? Remember
the tone-deaf response? Take a trip to Orlando; live your life as if nothing
has happened. If We the People had been empowered to work through our rage and
grief proactively, perhaps our foreign policy would not bankrupt our grandchildren.
SoA is helping We the People do something significant to make the world a better
and safer place. Except for the crazies, re-purposed cold warriors and pacifist
Birkenstockers yearn similarly for pacification of the mid east–and the
world.
Steven Johnson sees
something important in Spirit of America:
My buddy Jeff
Jarvis alerted me to the laudable Spirit
of America site, which has already been widely linked to through the blogworld,
but every link counts, so here's mine.
It's a fascinating model for combining long-distance philanthropy with targeted
interventions. I won't bother going through the details since they're nicely
summarized here. But
the site makes me wonder whether this isn't the beginning of a fascinating
new chapter in the web's gift
economy...
...What Spirit Of America suggests is a version of that swarming directed
towards Good Causes: someone halfway across the globe (or halfway across the
country, or the county) puts out a call for help setting up a wi-fi network
in an under-funded school, or repairing a sewage treatment facility, and within
five days they're flooded with funds, spare parts, technical expertise, and
good will. And when the network goes online, or the sewage starts getting
processed again, we all get to see the results. (Maybe not so fun for sewage,
but you get the idea.) And then we get to move on to the next cause.
Bingo! That's what I'm talkin' about! And so is Jeff when he describes SoA
as open-source
nation-building. Is it possible that the Internet disintermediates foreign
aid as it does so many other communication-dependent economic structures? Natch!
This resonates with John Robb's link
to Phillip Bobbit's important work describing the ascendancy of the market-state:
Philip Bobbitt, author of The
Shield of Achilles, on the rise
of the market-state:
The "market-state" is the latest constitutional order, one
that is just emerging in a struggle for primacy with the dominant constitutional
order of the 20th century, the nation-state. Whereas the nation-state based
its legitimacy on a promise to better the material well-being of the nation,
the market-state promises to maximize the opportunity of each individual
citizen.
The current conflict is one of several possible wars of the market-states
as they seek to open up societies to trade in commerce, ideas, and immigration
which excite hostility in those groups that want to use law to enforce religious
or ethnic orthodoxy.
States make war, not brigands; and the Al Qaeda network is a sort of
virtual state, with a consistent source of finance, a recognized hierarchy
of officials, foreign alliances, an army, published laws, even a rudimentary
welfare system. It has declared war on the U.S. for much the same reason
that Japan did in 1941: because we appear to frustrate its ambitions to
regional hegemony.
"...the market-state promises to maximize the opportunity of each
individual citizen." How's that for a consumer-oriented manifesto?
It's a classic market opportunity, and the virtual Al-Qaeda market-state is
responding to it with innovation and energy. The entrepreneurs at Spirit of
America see the success enjoyed by this new class of entrepreneur, and realizes
that an American response, fueled by real abundance, can overwhelm the competition
with a better product, one that actually improves lives rather than one that
promises to improve the afterlife. It's a functioning product vs. vaporware,
and it's really no contest.
The Spirit of America proposes to deliver real results to the customers to
whom Al Qaeda is shipping empty cartons. In that sense, SoA is as much a market-state
as Al Quaeda, but still a baby one. How big does SoA have to grow to match Al
Qaeda in GDP? In about a week and a half, last month, SoA raised $1,500,000,
giving SoA an imputed annual GDP of $52 million. That's about 25% as big as
the US economy in 1789, according
to these experts.
It's a start.
9:25:31 PM 
|
|
