Thomas Jefferson - Moral Case

"State a moral case to a ploughman and a professor" wrote Jefferson, "The former will decide it as well and often better than the latter because he has often not been led astray by artificial rules."

Core News Corp

"If it were left to me to decide whether we should have government without newspapers or newspapers without government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."

Thomas Jefferson

It seems clear to me that the media is at the core of democracy, but, as in other areas of the real economy, monopolies seldom act for the benefit of customers or, in the case of News Corp, for the benefit of democracy. So, the emergent political will to stand up against the real or imagined power of News Corp is probably a good thing.

But Interactive Democracy offers a whole new necessity for news. Based on the demand for newspapers in Switzerland, I would expect that the introduction of ID would be a boon for newspapers. Perhaps then they wouldn't feel the need to snitch and snicker about celebrities' personal lives in order to fund their existence.

Information

"Information is the currency of democracy." Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson

In a letter written in 1816, Thomas Jefferson extolled the virtues of a democracy that would be as direct as possible. The idea was that everyone could contribute through town hall meetings. He called it

"the wisest invention ever devised by the wit of man for the perfect exercise of self-government, and for its preservation."

"... every man is a sharer... and feels that he is a participator in the government of affairs, not merely at an election one day in the year, but every day."
As quoted here.

Thomas Jefferson

"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."

Similarly, we should recognise that we are better educated and informed than people 50 or 100 years ago; communication facilities have improved many times over; we are better educated. Interactive Democracy doesn't advocate the destruction of democracy as we know it today, but hopes to build on it with new technology that will empower, enable and enhance.

Here's more on Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of America. (Earlier, as minister to France, he expressed sympathy for the French Revolution, not knowing into what depravity it would sink.)