ow a growing willingness to
engage with the underlying code of the democratic process could
eventually manifest in a widespread call for revisions to our legal,
economic and political structures on an unprecedented scale, except in
the cases of full-fledged revolution. Transparency in media makes
information available to those who never had access to it before.
Access to media technology empowers those same people to discuss how
they might want to change the status quo. Finally, networking
technologies allow for online collaboration in the implementation of
new models, and the very real-world organisation of social activism
and relief efforts. The good news, for those within the power
structure today, is that we are not about to enter a phase of
revolution, but one of renaissance. We are heading not toward a
toppling of the democratic, parliamentary or legislative processes,
but toward their reinvention in a new, participatory context. In a
sense, the people are becoming a new breed of wonk, capable of
engaging with government and power structures in an entirely new
fashion. The current regime, in the broadest sense, will have ended up
being the true and lasting one, if it can get its head and policies
around these renaissance modalities of increased dimensionality,
emergence, scalability and participation.

My advice? Don't beat them. Let them join you. Choose to believe that
the renaissance I am describing has already taken place. Instead of
looking forward to a day when justice will be won, declare that we are
living in a just world right now. Declare that we are simply fighting
for more justice.

Movements, as such, are obsolete. They are incompatible with a
renaissance sensibility because of the narrative style of their
intended unfolding. They yearn forward towards salvation in the manner
of utopians or fundamentalists: an increasing number of people are
becoming aware of how movements of all stripes justify tremendous
injustice in the name of that deferred future moment. People are
actually taken out of their immediate experience and their connection
to the political process as they put their heads down and do battle.
It becomes not worth believing in anything.

This is why we have to advocate living in the now in order to effect
any real change. The should be no postponement of joy. Once we start
down this path, there's can be no stopping. We begin to see the
unreality of money. We begin to see how 'salvatio