(revolution, as in Industrial Revolution, not American Revolution...)
I work for a small IT publishing company, and we spend a lot of time talking about "just in time" learning. No surprise to anyone here: the print market has been undercut over the last five years by the Internet. Many in the industry point to all the 'free' content out there as the root of the problem. But, it really goes beyond mere free content. Instead, it's really about "just in time" problem solving. That is, it's really about people's desire to have the answer to the problem they want solved at their disposal without having to wade through content they don't need.
Personally, I see this dynamic happening across many levels of our society, and I believe that we're really on the cusp of a societal revoluton of sorts: the JIT Revolution, if you will.
So, what do I mean by JIT Revolution? Follow me on the flip:
Disclaimer: So, the idea of a JIT Revolution isn't new, and I don't make any claims to it. In fact, it's really an extension of Alvin Toffler's 3rd Wave, with an important difference, (which I'll explain in another diary.) Others beside Toffler are probably all over this. But I haven't been, and it's my diary, so there. :)
The basic premise:
Basically, the JIT Revolution occurs because of the convergence on a large scale of two societal forces:
- "I want what I want, when I want it."
- "you have the power."
One or the other by themselves won't create large-scale change--it's the merging of these two that have the biggest mpact.
I want what I want...
At first, this may seem like a pretty selfish basis for societal change, but it's really a neutral statement. The desire to get what we want, when we want it can cut both ways. If I want a more democratic government, with representatives that work toward the greater good, and I take steps to achieve that end, the end result is beneficial to society. If I'm George Bush and I want to get revenge against my daddy's arch-nemesis evil-doer, and I want it now, then that's bad for society.
You have the power
Naturally, I stole this from the Dean campaign, but it summarizes this dynamic perfectly. I can want a million dollars, I can want world peace, I can want journalism with integrity, etc. But wanting it doesn't do me much good, if I don't have the means to acheive it. So, not only do people have to want something, for the JIT Revolution to occur, they have to have the tools and the structures in place to obtain it.
If I were a rich man.
Now, the rich and connected have always had the means to want what they want and to get it too. Over the course of history, the only way the unwashed masses have had similar access is when they've pooled their resources.
Much of the time, their main resource has been boots on the ground, so to speak. In other words, get enough people across a nation raising their voice, or fists, or what-have-you, in protest, and the powers that be are forced to take notice.
Like herding cats
But these times of fundamental change, such as the Suffrage and Civil Rights movements, have come few and far between. In large part because for them to succeed, you have to mobilize an extremely large number of people, which means you have to have either the means to communicate your message, or there has to be a large groundswell of support from the beginning.
For the former, it means time and money; money to either publish your message or to travel cross-country gaining converts to the cause. Or both. Once dedicated to a cause, it takes time for your message to reach enough people to make a difference (assuming that your cause doesn't gain a rich and powerful patron who can affect change directly). Even after investing time and effort into promoting a message, it doesn't mean that it will ever reach achieve a critical mass of supporters.
So, even if you don't exactly buy this overview of mass mobilization, the only point I'm really trying to make is that only through pooling our resources on a large scale have we ever been able to get things done. But getting large numbers of people together for a cause is tricky, and requires overcoming many barriers.
Barriers that the Internet has dramatically lowered.
In part 2, I'll show how we're already seeing nascent beginnings of the JIT revolution, including right here on dKos. I'll also discuss how the JIT revolution will not only help us hold our existing institutions accountable, but remake some as well.