Private voices in the new media

The MSM have provided an influential stage to politicians, pundits, government officials and party operatives, but have mostly ignored influential individuals in the private sector -- even the experts from the private sector are invited to give their opinions on some piece of legislation or some government-centered news of the moment. The internet and the new media are changing all this. I think this is a healthy development. Hopefully we'll see an emergence of nonpartisan personalities who objectively discuss the current collective problems which have been politicized beyond reason and objectivity.

This emergence of private voices creates a healthy diversity of ideas and begins national conservations which aren't guided by party lines. It also empowers the private sector and strengthens the idea of citizen participation and influence, proper values of democracy. Persuasion through reason is much better suited for a free society than government coercion, and the national conservations are a good way for change to emerge from within society rather than change being forced on society from without through government regulations. Our government was never intended to control the thought and behavior of society as it presently attempts to do through the inflated power of the presidency, old media and partisan intellectuals.

Hopefully, now that media avenues are more diverse, we'll enjoy the popularity of private figures who have more to talk or write about than which current piece of legislation should be supported. Perhaps the nation will begin to realize that people outside Washington D.C. have a voice in our direction and the power to affect it without joining together in special interest alliances to use government coercion as the muscle to force change on others against their wills.

The narratives will continue to change and discussions of private sector empowerment will continue to capture the social imagination. There are broader and deeper philosophical discussions taking place, now, which can only help people begin conceptualizing the underlying concerns of government overreach. As information regarding innovations in the private sector is disseminated across the internet more and more, people will get a better picture of how technology guided by purpose can alter the way we produce, learn, trade and interact in the future. There is constant movement going on in the private sector attempting to solve our most pressing problems, and, yet, this has been under-reported in the MSM.

The potential of the internet is to allow people a vehicle to gather information which is not being researched by the major news sources, and to break a dependence on government as the source of change. Whether it's philosophical considerations, social science issues, technological breakthroughs, community action initiatives, economic debates, or whatever concerns us as a people attempting to find better ways to live together, understand each other, resolve our collective problems or imagine our future, the internet offers a diversity of information, and a chance to participate and interact, unlike anything the world has previously known. This power of information and knowledge is a private sector power which should be protected from government intervention, because it's the solution to what has been a filtered information system controlled by government and the major media. 

I predict we'll see more "stars" outside the political class, and this is a welcomed relief.