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 Back in 1999, I put together a book addressing what it means to be a "good citizen." I included essays from such luminaries as Cornel West, Robert Bellah, Judith Butler and others. In my own essay, I drew a picture of how our world was changing toward a network society. I wanted to stress that the network society represents not only a new form of economic development, but the evolution of an entirely different state of human affairs, with peculiar forms of social interaction.
I came up with 20 essentials - deliberately provocative, I might add - to this network society that give clues how citizens will be connected, and enterprises will be transformed. Now as I look at the essay, six years later, I think these "essentials" are more apt than ever. As we move ever deeper into the 21st century, these trends will become more transparent.
Here's a snapshot of the 20 essentials:
- Community will not save you.
What matters are the forms of intelligence to whom one is linked, the practical support those connections deliver, and the costs those connections exact.
- Fight for your right to party with your guests of choice.
Citizens gain leverage by joining a net, while those who remain absent to one are deemed irrelevant.
- Challenge systems that wield centralized and hierarchical power.
Closed systems will be eroded by unstoppable associations.
- Don't count numbers; focus on adding wealth to the network.
One plus one equals far more than two in a growing network.
- Don't be shocked by the future; learn to anticipate it.
Anticipation, which assumes trust in one's own intuition and judgment, represents an elevated form of intelligence in the network society.
- Make an organization's tenth anniversary its last, then start from scratch. Decentralized nets adapt more effectively to evolving environments.
- Push the process, not the agenda. People care most about those things they help to bring into being.
- Connections should matter more than computations in our schools.
Information is not always power. Ask any librarian.
- When you hear an intellectual forecast the disappearance of work, assume that pundit has tenure at a university. Jobs are not a stable commodity that can be protected. But a complex adaptive network means that tomorrow's work may not yet be born.
- Declare a war on ignorance. Learning never ends in a network society.
- If you want to live in a world without governments, go buy an island.
A good government strengthens nets, ensures fair access and competition in economic markets, and protects basic civilian rights.
- Discriminatory exclusion weakens your network. Diversity has a salutary effect on biological ecosystems; human culture is no exception.
- Egregious errors of the past will continue to haunt us.
Social problems do not disappear in a network society; they show a dogged persistence.
- Believe in democracy, but don't look to the government to solve your problems.
The network society promotes opportunity, but expects individuals to act with personal responsibility and dignity.
- The flow of information should not move slowly in one direction.
Transparency of information rules.
- If you don't like the news, go out and make your own.
Nets of communication now give everyone the tools to share their stories.
- History has not come to an end, but it has reached a major point of transition.
Global communication nets extend the range of what can be defined as capital and accelerate the pace at which it can move.
- Your grandchildren will carry two passports.
History is on the side of globally linked citizens.
- We will all become environmentalists.
Defining and controlling the environment, be it physical or virtual promises to be a matter of fierce competition in the 21st century.
- What is past is prologue.
Our stories are an open canvas.
*The full essay appears in The Good Citizen, David Batstone & Eduardo Mendieta, eds. (Routledge Press, 1999) |
