Online Identity, Offline Responsibilty

Did you enjoy such Safe and Normal films as The Rose (Bette Midler) or Trading Places (Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd)? What if such a regular Safe and Normal producer of such Safe and Normal films, in the final work of his all-too-short life, subsequently told you about this? Sure, it's easy to dismiss crackpots, paranoid televangelists, and the tinfoil hat brigade, but what happens when Safe and Normal people, in growing numbers, begin coming to the same Dangerous and potentially Revolutionary conclusions? Then what?

Forget for a moment the relatively benign question of Who Owns you Online, and just consider who or what pw3nZ you, period. Are you fully and authentically enjoying the reasonably unfettered Liberty granted by your Constitution? Really? Do you even know, in the most simple terms, what that word means? If you do, and if you are experiencing something akin to that kind of Liberty, you may well be among an increasingly small number who can honestly answer yes to such questions. If that's the case, do you owe any marginal obligation to your fellow citizens, whatsoever? Or if you're good to go, is that good enough, and F the rest?

All I'm suggesting is to stay informed and to think responsibly about the potential for unintended consequences, online and offline, that's all.

Moving forward, there may be equally compelling arguments for both achieving global political unity and preserving global political diversity; all I am suggesting here is that it is our obligation ... YOURS and MINE ... to think, to deliberate, to debate, and participate in ways that will hopefully result in the best outcomes for the greatest number of individuals. There are significant risks and unprecedented opportunities ahead for Americans and for Humanity, in the coming century. While it's crucial to man the lifeboats, it's clearly best for the ship and its passengers if we never need use them.

Happy Labor Day, and may each of our labors be both richly rewarding and commensurately rewarded.