A couple of other great examples of distributed, horizontal and parallel networks he used as contrast to what is increasingly becoming an obsolete vertical style government (a by-product of the industrial revolution) that I liked were of Buckhead's famous post here on FreeRepublic:
as well as his example of Bill W's genius or inspiration or whatever you want to call it, regarding AA's organizational principles.
As he was talking about virtue I thought of “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters. ” (Benjamin Franklin)
and John Adams: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
Anyway, thanks again for writing!
Cordially,
I could only touch on a few points that arrested me in Whittle's essay, lest my reply be even longer than it already was.
Thank you for pointing to the Apple and AA [Alcoholics Anonymous] models: both are "self-organizing, open-source structures" that do not operate "top-down," but only "laterally."
And as both you and MHGinTN have pointed out, our very own FReeper Buckhead is a perfect illustration of this phenomenon. Although an "obscure" person on an "obscure" website, he personally blew up Dan Rather's chicanery WRT Dubya's actual military service. And by exposing Rather's perfidy to public view, probably led to his "early retirement." A perfect "David vs. Goliath" scenario.
Truth will ever out — especially when there are willing truth bearers like Buckhead.
Also I did not mention Whittle's profound insight, that public change must come BEFORE political change. Especially in a constitutional republic like ours. Culture precedes politics.
For as any student of Plato already knows, no State (polis) can ever be any "better" than the human capital that constitutes it. If the people are disordered, if they are devoid of virtue, then their government will be likewise — disordered, and lacking in virtue. And so, lacking in truthful law and thus justice — but vastly empowered from the very same cause that "disorders."
Whatever flaws that lie in the public culture cannot be corrected by the State. This will come as news to committed Left Progressives. Indeed, Left Progressives seem to believe that just by repeatedly invoking the "right magic words," social reality itself can be absolutely transformed: Rhetoric with them always trumps Reality.
They don't seem to realize how stubborn, how durable, Reality actually is. And so they end up trying to be the "tail that wags the dog."
Do we (and they) not understand that in the end the State itself is but a reflection of the culture, and not the other way around? That the State is but the condensation or concretization of whatever passes for public morals and thus — if the culture is barbarous — will be vicious towards its own?
0Bama plus pals Axelrod, Jarrett, et al., thrive on the vicious — and cultivate it as a matter of principle. The bottom line of "community organizing" is that it is a school of and for the cultivation of thuggery. The ends justify the means.
Cicero — and Benjamin Franklin and John Adams and George Washington, et al. — were all keenly aware that there is one universal Truth of human nature, of states, and of Nature herself....
And that is why we rarely if ever hear about these great men in elite academe nowadays, not to mention in the taxpayer-funded public schools....
Whittle holds that virtue is "teachable." And desperately needs to be taught.
Anyhoot, the video runs nearly an hour and a half; I couldn't recommend it more, for FReeper reflection.... Oh, on that score, Whittle suggests that political parties and political battles are increasingly irrelevant. They constitute a status quo that only divides the people.
His conclusion: You can't fight city hall; so go around it: "Ignore the unvirtuous people, leave them alone." And remember that the government is NOT the same thing as the country We the People call the United States of America. Notwithstanding, all the while render under Caesar what is Caesar's, and unto God what is God's.
As a "parallel-structure alternative," I'd say FreeRepublic is an excellent example: FR does not carry water for any political party. And so folks feel they are free to speak freely. We gain a great deal from a variety of perspectives offered by many FReepers. In this sense, FR itself is a "self-organizing, open-source structure" in Whittle's sense.
And Buckhead proved how essential that is, if Truth is to receive its just due.
Thanks so much for writing, dear brother in Christ! It's so good to hear from you.