You can see the Internet as a lot of things. A worldwide reference library filled with material of varying reliability. An unruly marketplace where everyone from global corporations to Mom-and-Pop businesses to shysters can hawk their wares. But a global superpower? Well, that’s not exactly what James F. Moore of Harvard University’s law school suggests in a paper entitled The Second Superpower Rears its Beautiful Head.
What Moore proposes is not that the Internet is a superpower, but that a large number of people might add up to a second world power comparable to the government of the United States, thanks to the way the Internet helps them communicate.
He’s talking about digital democracy on a global scale.
The idea that technology can play a role in shaping world events goes back a long way — at least to the printing of political pamphlets soon after the first printing press appeared.
Modern information technology started showing its potential to empower ordinary people and counterbalance government power in China in the 1980s, around the time of the Tiananmen Square massacre. The Chinese government got the message – look at how it controls Internet use today.
Moore’s thesis is that the world today has one superpower. No prizes for guessing that’s the government of the United States. No prizes either for guessing that not everyone thinks one government having this much power is not a good thing.
Moore thinks the counterbalance might not be another government, but a worldwide movement, made up of individuals. Individuals with all sorts of agendas – human rights advocates, environmentalists, community volunteers. And tying them together – the Internet.
Just as fax machines helped Chinese dissidents in the 1980s keep in touch and get information to the outside world, the Internet lets people all over the world communicate easily.
Amnesty pleas
As an Amnesty International member, I see this first hand. Amnesty International regularly issues “Urgent Actions” calling for members to put pressure on government officials in the hope of ending or preventing human rights violations against individuals in immediate danger.
A man is arrested, his family can’t find out what happened to him, and there are reports he is being tortured in jail. Amnesty International e-mails members like me. I write a couple of letters to government officials, and forward the e-mail to other people in my local AI group. Before e-mail, these things were faxed or mailed, taking significantly longer.
Canadian pollster Allan Gregg, chair of The Strategic Counsel, spoke at the recent GTEC Week conference in Ottawa. He talked about the issues Canadians consider most important, and noted that social issues like health care and education didn’t even register until the mid-1990s, but are now leading concerns. He also said 63 per cent of Canadians today think politicians don’t share their views on what is the most important issue facing the country.
The Internet is one way for Canadians to push the issues they care about to the top of the agenda.
“The symbol of the first superpower is the eagle – an awesome predator that rules from the skies, preying on mice and small animals,” Moore writes.
“Perhaps the best symbol for the second superpower would be a community of ants. Ants rule from below. And while I may be awed seeing eagles in flight, when ants invade my kitchen they command my attention.”
