Counterpoint: The Citizen and His Browser, Volunteering Alone – by Michael Turk

<p>Interesting and scary. The RNC "gets it" but unfortunately Zephr Teachout doesn't <a href="http://www.personaldemocracy.com/node/342" title="http://www.personaldemocracy.com/node/342">http://www.personaldemocracy.com/node/342</a></p> <p>Distributed campaigning is obviously the wave of the future, Michael Turk takes aim at Zephr Teachout's call for "old-school" community building as an "end" in an of itself.<br /> <a href="http://www.personaldemocracy.com/node/355">Counterpoint: The Citizen and His Browser, Volunteering Alone – by Michael Turk</a> – <em> <p> I spent a good deal of time reading and digesting Zephyr Teachout’s article on the nature of society, the need to be a part of social groups and the desire to use that need to organize. It really is an interesting read – unfortunately, in my opinion, it’s wrong in almost all of its assumptions and conclusions about the nature of people, society and the transformative power of the Internet. </p> <p> Invoking Robert Putnam’s <a href="http://www.bowlingalone.com">Bowling Alone</a> and Peter Najarian’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1886434093/qid=1108222534/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-2319839-8751047?v=glance&s=books&n=507846">Great American Loneliness</a>, Zephyr seems to argue that people need societal collectives to be complete but ignores the fact that the trends they document stand in stark contrast to the Locke-esque belief she espouses. Everything she cites reinforces the notion that people are growing further and further apart, but there is little recognition given to the possibility – or probability – that this may be by choice. </p> <p></p></em> [<a href="http://www.personaldemocracy.com/blog/0">PDF Feature</a>]</p>