thought I'd post my comment US Imperialism 2.0 - Web 2.0 Puppies with Purpose
Google's Revolution Factory - Alliance of Youth Movements: Color Revolution 2.0
In 2008, the Alliance of Youth Movements held its inaugural summit in New York City. Attending this summit was a combination of State Department staff, Council on Foreign Relations members, former National Security staff, Department of Homeland Security advisers, and a myriad of representatives from American corporations and mass m
as senior Google advisor Al Gore said in 2008, the young revolutionaries are like, well, puppies...
"Much like puppies, according to Mr. Gore, Web 2.0 has to have a purpose. The purpose he urges us to consider is to bring about a higher level of consciousness about our relationship with this planet.
"We have everything we need to save it, and in the process create millions of new jobs, reduce our national security exposure, and solve the climate crisis," he said, but, "just as Barack Obama's election would have been impossible without the new dialogue and new ways of interacting on the Web, the only way this is going to be solved is by addressing the democracy crisis."
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/al_gore_web_20_needs_a_purpose_1.php
My feeling is the Obama administration is spreading a kind of internet imperialism, coopting and redirecting the social and economic revolutions into shallow democratic spectacles...
converting neo-colonial regimes into neo-liberal ones...
Jimmy Carter on CPAN says (paraphrasing) "the US used to think that we needed dictators in the Middle East, we dont, just like South America (with maybe one exception) we can have democracies in South America and the Middle East" http://www.c-span.org/Events/A-Conversation-with-Jimmy-Carter/10737419599/
its polyarchy, shallow democracy in the Middle East, its Hopey Changey time... the lessons from Obama 2.0 are now US Imperialism 2.0
the globalized economic system of tax havens, multinational corporations, and private unregulated finance (including now the emerging ecosystem services like climate and forest carbon) are much stronger than national states, indeed in many ways, it doesnt matter that Evo Morales is a rhetorically a commie and is implementing state capitalism with some social programs, that actually is good, it creates consumers.. the global markets force discipline
as Evo said on Democracy Now to Amy, "come on, we need to be realistic" when selling onto a world market
"Now, the internal debate. Those foundations, NGOs, said, “Amazon, no oil.” So they’re telling me that I should shut down oil wells and gas wells. So what is Bolivia going to live off of? So let’s be realistic. But since these foundations and NGOs justify using some of the indigenous brothers and sisters—I don’t blame my indigenous brothers and sisters. They use the leaders to justify their good salaries and their own way of life. " http://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/23/bolivian_president_evo_morales_to_president
makes you wonder, "Whats Left in Latin America?" http://books.google.com/books?id=ssmZYFsXiR4C
I would suggest, Obama would be quite happy to upgrade from US Imperialism 1.0 to US Imperialism 2.0... i.e. neo-colonialism under monarchial dicators, to neo-liberalism polyarchy under plutocrats, technocrats and the securitat
-- Nicholas Roberts US 510-684-8264 http://Permaculture.TV http://permaculture.coop