In praise of the auto-didact

Thomas Paine.

In 1995, Wired's Jon Katz wrote a very prescient article on the power and possibility of the Internet, and, most specifically, to it's historical mirroring of Paine and his brother pamphleteers' poking a finger in the eye of the established order. Paine recognized that the "mass media" of the time was often subservient to political or business interests and therefore often peddling what people in power wanted to happen or be "true," not necessarily what was true.

Paine, and his pen-pal Thomas Jefferson, believed information wanted to be free (as in unfiltered, free-flow of.) In fact, they both believed it was a requirement in order for man to be free and capable. ("Advertisements... contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper." Thomas Jefferson in a letter to another friend, Nathaniel Macon, January 12, 1819)

Paine was a man of conviction and ideals. But his ideas had resonance and symmetry with how humans regard themselves and their natural rights. To this end, he reserved his right to write and share what he thought, on politics, on business, on religion, on bridge building, on you name it. That his ideas were often so spot on and compelling, so naturally sensible and cognizant of the way people really are and want to be, only made the culture and power establishment of the time fear and despise him: he made their compromises appear not wise, but lazy; their words and claims to integrity, a sham. The few and satisfied viewed his words and brashness as an affront, but the many ("Common Sense sold 500k copies in a country of 3 million, many illiterate) found strength and validation in his willingness to point out, curse and smash priveleged feet of clay. He gave voice to their deeply held, powerful but ignored, ideals.

Thomas Paine, Pamphleteer, revolutionary, seeker--the father of blogging, of Digital pamphleteering--would get the message: refusing status quo, denying official "reality," insisting on speaking his own mind. With the freedom to do so and the urge to follow through.

240-plus years later, Paine's legacy is a new means and a New Conversation about age-old old desires, ambitions and hopes. It's called Blogging and you're welcome to join. To speak your thoughts, not somebody else's. To raise your hand and signify. And what you say, is completely up to you.

A snippet from Katz's article:

Tom Paine's ideas, the example he set of free expression, the sacrifices he made to preserve the integrity of his work, are being resuscitated by means that hadn't existed or been imagined in his day - via the blinking cursors, clacking keyboards, hissing modems, bits and bytes of another revolution, the digital one. If Paine's vision was aborted by the new technologies of the last century, newer technology has brought his vision full circle. If his values no longer have much relevance for conventional journalism, they fit the Net like a glove.
The Net offers what Paine and his revolutionary colleagues hoped for - a vast, diverse, passionate, global means of transmitting ideas and opening minds. That was part of the political transformation he envisioned when he wrote, "We have it in our power to begin the world over again." Through media, he believed, "we see with other eyes; we hear with other ears; and think with other thoughts, than those we formerly used."

.....

His writing is infused with the sense - especially relevant now as the digital culture spreads across the world - that a new age was about to burst open all around him. This would be an unmistakable, great awakening, even if it came in stages. Instead of seeing a single bud on a winter tree, he wrote, "I should instantly conclude that the same appearance was beginning, or about to begin, everywhere; and though the vegetable sleep will continue longer on some trees and plants than on others, and though some of them may not blossom for two or three years, all will be in leaf in the summer, except those which are rotten." It is not difficult to perceive, he wrote, "that the spring is begun."

....

Asked about the reasons for new media, Paine would have answered in a flash: to advance human rights, spread democracy, ease suffering, pester government. Modern journalists would have a much rougher time with the question. There is no longer widespread consensus, among practitioners or consumers, about journalism's practices and its goals.

Of course, the ferociously spirited press of the late 1700s that Paine helped invent differed from the institution we know today. It was dominated by individuals expressing their opinions. The idea that ordinary citizens with no special resources, expertise, or political power - like Paine himself - could sound off, reach wide audiences, even spark revolutions, was brand-new to the world. In Paine's wake, writes Gordon Wood in The Radicalism of the American Revolution, "every conceivable form of printed matter - books, pamphlets, handbills, posters, broadsides, and especially newspapers - multiplied and were now written and read by many more ordinary people than ever before in history."

....

Reading Paine is eerie after spending time online and in political conferences on The Well, say, or after poring through the most provocative BBS postings. From reasoned arguments to raging flames to the staccato shorthand (LOL, IMHO) of countless e-mailers, digital communications are spare, blunt, economical, and efficient. Paine's style is the style of the Internet; his succinct voice and language could slip comfortably into its debates and discussions.