geek to power
July 23rd, 2006 by herichon
Luther he’s not, but somebody named Devanshu has nailed his 95 Theses of Geek Activism on the door of the Interweb (well, technically speaking, on the Science Addiction blog, but you know, creative license). Link courtesy of Cory @ BoingBoing, who recently had a birthday (which I know because I share it).
There is much here that’s obvious, and more that’s redundant (to flesh out the pleasantly symbolic number of 95 entries), but just the fact that it exists and is being linked to from all over is cheering. ¡Viva la revolution!
An open letter to geeks everywhere (but especially in the United States):
My fellow geeks,
Geek activism needs to happen, and it needs to happen now. We spend too much time tinkering with our toys and not enough time using them to change our world for the better. Technology is a lot of fun to play with, but ultimately it is a tool, intended to be wielded by an intelligent hand toward a meaningful purpose. People, stop sharpening your tools and start using them.
Listen – the perception of power in this country – this world, really – is skewed. Too many of us think that power rests inevitably in the hands of corrupt politicians and evil corporations. Most of us believe this so strongly that we never, ever question it and in fact we prefer it that way, since it lets us focus on our toys. But power only rests with politicians and corporations because we allow it to rest there. It rests with them because we have abdicated our personal responsibility to shape our own world.
Power, socially speaking, is a measure of three things – the strength, purpose and will necessary to make a thing happen. We – you and me – have the strength to make things happen. We know how to make things happen – we do it every day. In fact, as the people who understand and wield technology better than anyone else, our strength is correspondingly greater. In a society more and more reliant (in fact almost absurdly reliant) on technology, we are the keepers of that technology. And not only are we the ones gifted with a unique ability to make things happen – there are also more of us then there are of them, and we are smarter by far. We lack only the purpose and the will.
Once we as a global community of geeks realize the power we have, and we unite with a common will behind a common purpose, what could possibly prevent us from changing the world?
Think about it.
Hey- thanks for the link, and great open letter. We have the strength to make things happen as long as we keep talking, spreading the message. Keep blogging.