I have had a very polarised week so far with people expressing both extremes of “the web will change everything” to “the web changes nothing” and everything in between. This was partly focussed on a debate I took part in on Wikileaks and I have also started reading The Net Delusion: How Not to Liberate The World by Evgeny Morozov.

I guess my own feeling is that the web will change nothing until we use it for that propose but the way it enables us to do so is new. What matters is that people understand it and use it. Take it seriously to shape the world. Not just see it as another channel to consume.

I go back to the frequent comment that I am unreasonable expecting people to think, and say what they think – that some people prefer not to think. Is this true or is it that we have trained them that it is risky to think?

Does the web move us away from a mass to an ecology of niches and individuals or do we just become a disorganised and chaotic mob? Do we need ideologies or -isms? If we need organising principles who is to say which wins – democracy or authoritarianism? The web can enhance both.

Maybe thinking is too hard after all …

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Re-reading a classic blog post from two years ago by Tom Steinberg I  thought the following paragraph was uncannily prescient given recent events:

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“Nothing we do will make any difference. There will always be millions of people who are poor and hungry. Live Aid didn’t work so what’s the point?”

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I attended a funeral today. A very moving and nice tribute to a man who had a real zest for life and was very much loved by everyone who knew him. One of the readings was from 1 Corinthians 13 which I quote below.

As I listened I heard it in terms of some of the things that can seem to really matter in this brave new 2.0 world but which in fact maybe don’t.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.

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