Bill Clinton: The Vision Of A Global Initiative
For all of the advances our world has made over the past 200 years — from the industrial revolution to the digital revolution — human beings still can’t seem to work together within a world stitched together by sovereign nations… unless there’s a dollar figure attached to the cause.
The reality is that the world is stitched together by corporations — legal representations of people.
Our government, depending on its leadership at any given time, swings from balancing business and human interests while creating a positive difference in the world to leaning hard on the side of business, capitalism and next-day profits — running full stream ahead with Gordon Gecko’s “Greed is good” philosophy.
Because in our society, public officials — from a local mayor to the President — can jockey back and forth between the public and private sectors, corruption has a chance to take hold and dictate policy decisions that affect the entire globe.
After all, we are the super-power of the world; as we cough, the rest of the world sneezes.
State government and congressional representation are also complicit in the lobbyist equation, while the fourth estate — the media — is complicit simply by not developing their presentation format to the degree necessary for reporting the transparent details of our political process.
The American government is the largest corporate business on the planet; in essence, an All-Star team of capitalist legislators, negotiators, lawyers and management. It is this system that all but guarantees that politics remain politics as usual.
This past week, former President Bill Clinton led the inaugural meeting of The Clinton Global Initiative. From what I’ve read, Clinton is determined to spend the remainder of his life in an attempt to band together with global citizens to circumvent sovereign politics and this insipid, self-serving culture we’ve developed, to make positive and necessary changes in how the world functions to support the sustainable future of all mankind.
This is visionary leadership at work.
According to DeWayne Wickham:
“The former president walked about the stage for more than an hour speaking without the aid of notes about the things that should be done to wipe out poverty, end religious conflicts, control climate change and encourage good governance.”
No notes? Heartfelt, passionate vision? I almost forgot how Presidential it is to speak from the heart.
While Clinton is raising cash and cooperative support from around the world, the Internet industry is about to move past the first year of its re-dedication in building the Semantic Web, by developing Web 2.0, both philosophically and literally.
Sometime soon, the odds are that these two disparate, yet symbiotic worlds are going to collide, and when they do, the effect will change how we communicate, network, inform ourselves and make decisions in a global manner.
Tags: activism, Adam Smith Problem, Bill Clinton, business, capitalism, citizen media, community, convergence, DeWayne Wickham, Gordon Gecko, innovation, internet, leadership, politics, reality, revolution, Semantic Web.
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Damn, that is powerful writing! You make some valid and almost scary points about the world to come. I remember how excited I was in the late nineties with e-Commerce and the communications bomb. Companies such as Verizon (Bell Atlantic), Qwest, SBC, and the like, were dropping so much cable in the ground, some areas of the country were glowing with all the fiber and copper that was present.
I remember working for Verizon in the summer of 1998 and learning about how our nation is tied together with its intricate tangle of copper and fiber webs, and how that web was going to grow. The following summer, I moved on to use my knowledge of HTML and graphic design and really started using my skills in the professional realm. It was quite fascinating, then, to see what I could do with a little hypertext and a computer with an internet connection.
Now we are looking at an even more profound digital age, one that gives me goose bumps much like those days in the late nineties, but ten times more arousing. Maybe it’s my experience which has matured since those days that gives me this feeling, or as you said, maybe it’s “…these two disparate, yet symbiotic worlds [that] are going to collide, and when they do, the effect will change how we communicate, network, inform ourselves and make decisions in a global manner.”
Exciting times are coming down the line. With the advent of Web 2.0 and cheaper digital technologies ranging from cameras to OLED screens that can convey this data to our peers, the road ahead looks to be an interesting one.
Clinton was smarter and a more competent leader but he was no less dedicated to power over democracy. Forget the Monica smoke screen…NAFTA? Serbia bombing? Wiretaps and spying on Americans increases?
Dems maybe be better imperialists in comparison to the naked aggression now on display, but they don’t deserve a historic burnishing to their legacy.
Man, you are pessimistic, aren’t you? I avoided the Chomsky take on power and democracy on purpose.
“Dems” and “they” aren’t who I’m talking about here. I’m talking about Clinton, who in the aftermath of a wrecked presidential legacy is trying to do something positive and noble with the rest of the days on this earth.
Do you have the same perspective of Jimmy Carter?
>>Do you have the same perspective of Jimmy Carter?
Yes I do. It’s not pessimism my friend it’s just not allowing these people to get by their undermining of Democracy (ours and others) no matter what party their associated with or what charity they start after holding power.
That’s an obtuse perspective.
Tell me about the ills of Carter post-1980 and Clinton post-2000, as I’m not referring to their time in office. That’s a completely different topic with a completely different thread.
oh yeah? You stink!
baron, did your daughter get ahold of the keyboard?
Nah, she would have made a more nobel attempt to counter your baiting.
I’m holding these mean (all men, so far) responsible for their entire lives as they relate to me, a citizen, they are representing. You arm Indonesians knowing full well they are slughtering East Timorians (to use a favorite Chomsky example) you don’t get a pass for building some poor folks some houses afterward.
look, i’m not baiting anyone. the post was about this clinton initiative and why it’s necessary at this point in american history. i was corroborating your point about corruption of government and corporations, while not stating that any one political party was solely guilty or innocent of such indescresions. that’s why this initiative is so timely. after trying to work within the system, clinton is now trying to circumvent the traditional political avenues of soveriegn states to do what probably couldn’t be done while in power *due to our system* of politics and geopolitics.
put it like this: i’d rather have bill clinton working along these lines than working the speaking tour 24/7 as a consultant or participating in a shady arms corporation with saudi’s. can we at least agree on that?
yes, I’d rather have him working for good after the fact than as a lobbyist for the Saudis (Bush Sr) or pontificating as a wonk on Sunday morning yak circuses (Newt).
You still stink…