Are We Approaching A True Democracy? Is this Athens?

This has been an exciting and revealing week on the web.   Several things are coming to the surface and what are the implications?   The world became a much smaller place with the acceptance and widespread use of the internet.   Now you can talk to someone real time on the other side of the world as though they are in the next room.   News is instantly broadcast worldwide   Way back when, it took days if not longer for news to travel.   Wars have gone on for months before all of the troops were made aware that an end had been reached and the fighting stopped.   Now, within minutes of something happening in Afghanistan, it is broadcast worldwide.  It has been reported that Osama bin Laden himself watched the unfolding terror of the 911 attacks on CNN.   Never has instant information played the role in government than this past Presidential election in the US.   The choice of Joe Biden as the running mate for VP was going to be released via text message to the world, but a reporter trumped the move.

Obama was quoted as saying “We are the people that we have been waiting for” in government.   He pledged to open the government to give you and I “The People” a greater choice.   This is supposed to be a “Government for the people, by the people”.   In reality it has turned into a government for the people ruled by a select few that we put there to truthfully watch out for our best interests.  Boy, did we ever screw up.   The Obama administration set up a forum to hear peoples’ opinions about how things can be done better in government and the item that got the most responses was legalizing marijuana.   How apathetic are we as a country?   Are we that ignorant to the current state of the world and our future that it hasn’t hit home yet?   Everyone knows of someone that the economy has hurt very badly if not themselves.   I never served in the Military, however, looking back now, I feel everyone should have to serve their country for several years in one form or another.   The military is just one option.   Whether or not you support the conflicts we are involved in around the world is your choice, but not supporting the troops that are there fighting for America is Unamerican.

Now more than ever, we are all connected to the internet and mass communication in some form or another.   My 6th grader feels he needs to be able to check his email on his phone!   Within a few years, television as we know it may change to being provided solely by dish and available over the internet.   Look at www.blip.tv, online since 2005.  Several countries around the world have made voting via text messaging possible.   Will we get to the point voting on Presidential mandates and/or ideas overnight on our phones for the administration to gauge the American response?   How is that going to affect all of the aging seniors when the younger generations can affect the majority vote in such numbers?  I think it leaves more questions unanswered then it answers.

Where does that leave us?   The world has changed as we know it over the last few weeks.   Sears announced it is going online with the Sears Marketplace in a direct response to Amazons’ Marketplace domination.   Walmart announced the same thing several weeks back.   Amazons’ domination of online sales may have just been truly challenged.   Both Sears and Walmart will be offering  3rd parties the opportunity to sell on their marketplaces further widening their offerings in those categories.   Sears will be open to any 3rd party seller, Walmart is only open to their chosen few partners.   We the consumer will have more choices of online marketplaces as a result.  We are already not limited to Amazon because of other places like Buy.com and Ebay.com, but neither of them have the retail punch of Sears or Walmart.  Will this change our shopping patterns?  Only time will tell, but going into a holiday season, it does offer us more reputable choices to be able to shop from home.

Thanks to Scott Wingo and his blog at Channel Advisors, the best multi-channel ecommerce platform available.

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