tp192.xml

tp192.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-03-03

"Agenda Interrupted...","And it's about time. For 5000 years we've seen monumentalism
in the name of the powers that be waste enormous resources in
the effort to feed the egos of leadership. And every monument
draws the attention of angry minds wishing to strike back at
the symbols of power structures that they cannot themselves
dominate. Thankfully, in their blind rage, they have struck
at the most obvious, but not the most critical targets.

Instead of WTC, had they instead struck at the databases of
the financial industry, found the means to erase banking
records in nondescript buildings in the urban fringe, they
could have shut down the entire economy. Instead, they have
accellerated the dispersal of critical operations and the
interconnectivity of electronic communications.

Not long after 9/11 the bankers told the senate hearing that
no more monumental office towers would be built because no
one is willing to insure them any more. I see a clue in the
ongoing installation of water lines along the roadways all
over my part of the Ozark mountains. They are also putting
up wireless high speed data towers so that widely dispersed
businesses like mine can function in rural areas where
terrorism and urban crime is a trivial threat.

Ever since the Pharoahs we've seen power concentrated, and
now we are seeing it dispersed, and whereas before it was
all hidden behind palace walls, it is now evolving into
'open source' and 'accountability'.

It's about time.