Barack Obama understands the new world order.
I’ll admit that this post will have less to do with solar energy than others in this blog but it will address the same theme- are we prepared to meet the challenges of our collective future. Solar energy provides one of the greatest solutions to a dynamic, globally interconnected problem. As fossil fuel use navigates our collective society towards greater global instability, using established infrastructure, solar energy presents a long lasting solution nearly ready for turn-key integration : Maharishi Solar has trusting the sun for 4.3 billion years, we should too. Dr. Fried taught us long ago that although the sun will die one day, it’s nothing that we, our children, or our children’s children had to worry about. Now that’s thinking ahead.
Campaign finance is only an issue depending on who you’re talking to. The New York Times wrote an article on public financing vs Obama’s millions of small donors- all of whom we hope will SHOW UP TO THE POLLS TOMORROW as they have a financial stake in the outcome of the election. End result, the Democrats raised a large amount of money this election by asking every individual to contribute an extremely small amount, distributing the burden of electing a president over all of the wallets of all supporters, no matter our economic capacity.
Admittedly, I joined the Obama campaign donating 10 dollars. (I hope that my non-monetary contributions were more significant.) But everyone I know found find ten dollars , especially if they were passionate about a specific issue. Some sent five dollars. But those dollars did the trick like a cheap bottle of wine. Especially when wealthy adults matched our contributions. My ten dollars became twenty because some wealthy individual matched my contribution.
How did all of this happen? The Internet.
Using the Internet to connect with voters actually began with Howard Dean in 2004. I suppose it also led to his demise when his primordial scream echoed throughout cyberspace.
Youthful, connected Obama utilized the web to his benefit from day 1. He realized that to reach the most people he would have to communicate with us in the way we would most likely recieve his message. Through Youtube, Facebook, Myspace and and any and every networking sight, he made contact with the interconnected world, the one we all seem to inhabit all the time. The same world that has been accused of significant drops in productivity in the work place because workers spend time facebook stalking or watching/sharing Youtube videos, downloading movies and music, checking out the many concerts streaming from all over the globe during LIVE 8…. Wikipedia…
The New York Times failed to address the most important issue, How exactly Obama was able to raise his funds. And the answer reveals his potential as president of the United States. In touch with his supporters, he understands how the world works now, today, in 2008. Knowledge flys through cyberspace, Obama’s ultimate rise to prominence was in his utilization of the communication mechanism integrated into the daily lives of the majority of his constituents. (My computer and I have a relationship, we’re obviously not alone.)
The Internet has affected Obama’s life almost as much as it has effected mine. The only reason I believe there is any degree of difference stems from how early I was introduced to the world flattening technology (to steal from Thomas Friedman, my hero) compaired to him. Current studies show that the brains of children today work differently than the brains of children born before computers. For example, kids age four today get exposed to concept of Google. Obama and Google didn’t form a relationship until much later in life.
Ultimately, Obama gets it. He understands his American constituents in a way that McCain can’t possibly as he is completely computer illiterate. McCain might not have any idea aabout the plethora of information transported every nanosecond of every day, no concept of the ultimate potential of this modern communication device. Has he ever sent his own proposals across the ocean 20 times in a day correcting edits?
Obama understand not only that all of this is possible, but he’s mentally there. He spoke to me through my computer. I heard him, checked out his page and gave him ten dollars. I voted for him because I invested in his success. I believe in him because if he had any free time and Google Searched “Solar Energy,” Barack Obama himself might accidental happen upon an entry about my 88 year old grandmother taking the bus in Montreal. Lot’s of different kinds of campaign finance. Obama has adapted to the new global system because he’s a part of it.
The wirearchy, according to Jon Husband is, “a dynamic two-way flow of power and authority based on information, knowledge, trust and credibility, enabled by interconnected people and technology.” He lectures on the idea that the internet changed the fundamental power hierarchy of the world and how these next few years are going to be challenging as adjustments are made. Barack Obama’s campaign is a perfect example of his theory
Fossil fuels won’t cut it anymore., Yes, solar can.
