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March 19, 2007 at 11:21pm
by joel By now I’m sure you’ve probably seen this video.
What’s so striking to me is not the production quality of the video mashup, which is very good, but rather how much this furthers the trend begun by blogs, where everyday people suddenly have a voice, and a potentially powerful one at that. This is the promise of the Internet, coming of age in ways both promising and perilous. Anyone can say anything they want (true or otherwise) and have an audience, and I believe the impact on this election cycle is going to be remembered and talked about for the next 20 years the way Apple’s “1984” ad has been for the last 20. Howard Fineman gets it:
The candidates dont really control it anymore. It is not something they do; it is something that is done to them. They have to learn to ride the beast like a Fremen riding a sandworm in Dune. If they master it, they can speed across the desert; oblivion awaits the unskilled.
We are in the middle of a fundamental shift in the way the world works, and it’s not all going to be pretty.
