Critical Mass

Even though the vote didn't go the way we wanted today I can't help feel that this demonstration of netroots power marks a turning point. It was an extremely high bar to hurdle. I sense, however, that we are reaching some level of critical mass.

You can pile quite a large pile of radioactive material on the table and the only thing you might be able to do with it is roast a marshmallow or two, maybe a wiener. Get enough together, however, and suddenly you are are capable of changing worlds with the power generated. You have reached "critical mass".

The loose organization of progressive bloggers and related web sites are very close to reaching that point. Everyday they are reaching more people and everyday more people are realizing that if you want to know the scoop and get intelligent opinion from a diverse cross-section of people your only reliable resource is the web. Daily, people from all strata of our society are realizing that the corporate media are not unbiased and not dependable sources for information.

By the way, it's kind of ironic that the man who first proposed the basics of hypertext was named Bush. Vannevar Bush introduced the concept in 1945. The idea was expanded and developed by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN, who introduced the World Wide Web, HTML, HTTP and URL's in 1990.

Vannevar was born before the turn of the century and the ideas he introduced in his 50's did not become reality until 16 years ago and now, in a very short time, they potentially connect every one of the billions of people on earth with each other in real time and without the requirement for a high level of technical know how. It is virtually beyond the capability of the human mind to grasp the possiblities of such interconnectedness.

We now have millions of blogs all heterodyning and producing unpredictable synergies. Critical mass has either already been reached or will be in the very near future. The evolution of our species is at the next threshold and we will make a difference.

So now what? We keep on doing what we are doing and doing better everyday. We connect. We communicate. We evolve the discourse. We feed off each other's ideas. We produce a synergy of thought that is a force for change that the world has not seen before.

Deny us at your peril.