The key understanding of the second generation of cognitive science is that humans use metaphors to think.
When we think "life is a journey", we really use what we know about journeys to think about life. We think about what a "dead end" is to a journey and try to recognize "dead ends" in our lives. The grammar of journeys, with paths and itineraries, is used to think about life. The metaphor matters. If you think "life is a prison", it won't just be different words you use regarding your life, but different ideas because we use the metaphor to think.
With that in mind, I'm not fond of "people powered politics" because that means we are burning up people to run political engines... just like "gas powered engines" burn gas. I'm not even fond of netroots or "grassroots" or being "roots" at all. I'm not here to nourish the "higher branches" and "sun dwellers" from my underground nutrition-mine. I'm not here to feed others political power I can't enjoy myself. I'm not here due to my ability to burn cleanly in an engine.
Metaphors are not just words, they are not just figures of speech that mean literally what they mean and bear no relation to their source.
Some think these distinctions don't matter, that it's just words, and while they may be right, the empirical studies of how the mind works, in the form of cognitive psychology and the other disciplines of cognitive science (in linguistics, neuroscience, and philosophy) say they are very wrong, that it DOES matter.
The metaphors invoked by our words are not dead metaphors, but living things... if the mind is some form of computer, a thinking body, the programs that it runs are metaphors, metaphors that rise first out of our need to perceive the world and move within it, but which become more and more abstract.
I like the idea of powered up people, power to the people... give power to the people. I don't want a politics that gets powered up even more.
Now... do you know what a "power up" is? It's a little icon in a computer game you run over to get more power, more energy, a better gun, better armor, something that makes YOU more powerful.
That is what peer to peer politics is all about, not powering up politics. Damn! Politics is powerful enough already, no, these diaries are not food pellets for our governors, that govern us, they're already overfed. Peer to peer politics is about "power ups" that WE run over to make us empowered.
We read what soandso did and realize, "hey, we can do that"... we read about what janeorsue dares think and realize "hey, I can think that too, and I do!"... we read what someone needs and get the inspiration, find the motivation, to do something under our own power.
We do not loan credibility or power to our masters, hoping they don't forsake us. All masters will forsake you, there is something WRONG with being master! Something wrong with being slave, something sick about being a happy slave to a good master. NO NO NO!
We are to be powered up. The power is to be distributed, it will happen, it is happening right before our eyes, and this political blogging "thing" is all about powering US up.