Every organization in the world, every political group, every parent, thinks that they are needed forever. They aren’t.

A long time ago I talked about how the myth of the fragile Earth is doing nothing but hurting the environmental movement. They think “ZOMG, what will the Earth do without us,” but this is a very humanocentric view. The Earth will actually be fine without us. She will survive great– it’s us that will die if we don’t fix this stuff.

The same applies to a lot of situations– conservatives think the United States will go to the heathens without them. Liberals think corporations will take over the country unless they legislate. Both these things may be true (they’re in the future, so who knows), but both ignore the reactions that these incidents would provoke. Neither exist in a vacuum.

Your children will be fine, even if they do drugs. They’ll even be fine if they fall off their bike and hurt their head. Everything will be fine, pretty much no matter what.

Your child will recover and fix his mistakes. Liberals will move to Canada or Europe, creating a brain drain on those countries. Conservatives will move to the Bible Belt or to states where taxation hinders them less. All these are reactions, and none of them mean the end of the world.

Everything is a flow. Very little is an abrupt stop.

History shows that the stock market generally trends upward, with corrections here and there. Likewise, culture generally gets more lenient and progressive (with similar “corrections” like the repealing of Prop 8). This happens everywhere, but it won’t change which direction we’re going.

What you need to do is prepare and place yourself at the crossroads of trends, not worry about whether the world will vanish. There is nothing down that road.

A quick read of In Over Your Head confirms that Julien is an advocate for change, in business and in life. In the battle of change vs. more-of-the-same, change wins out almost every time over here.

I read the posts and cheer along, because I’m pro-change too; the decision to question expectations and strike out toward something new has always served me well. Lately I’ve been thinking even further—not only does change offer plenty of opportunity, it comes with its own set of responsibilities as well.

In my part of the online world, I write a lot about opportunity and possibility. I choose invincibility and adventure. I also try not to be an asshole, which means that I’m not really in the business of telling people what to do. I don’t judge anyone except the closed-minded. Whatever rocks your world without harming someone else, go for it!

But along with opportunity comes responsibility. We can do things that few people in the world have ever been able to consider. We have conversations about what kind of work we’d like to do, and how we’d like to spend our time. Like Julien and me, many people who read this post spend part of their days in shops where we pay $3 for a cup of coffee and a free WiFi connection.

It’s a nice world we live in. And it’s a world that comes with responsibility, not only to think about contribution, but also about change. I don’t usually like obligations, and I wrote a book about how to ignore them. But I’m not sure we can ignore the obligation to give change the attention it deserves.

If you’ve benefitted from the same opportunities, what are the corresponding responsibilities? What can you change right now?

If you are taking part in this experiment, you are one of us.

We are people who believe in individual liberty and the ability to determine our own fates. We are people who want to carve our names into history, even if only a small corner of it. We want the right to create meaningful work that helps us and our communities grow.

If you believe in the web, then you believe in freedom.

The web liberates us. It allows us to be who we want to be, independent of our social circles, our geography, our family history– hell, independent even of who we currently are. The real world is about who we are now. The web liberates us to think about who we want to be.

We may not all agree on everything, but we agree on this: The web frees us to talk the way we want to, to think our own thoughts, and to become the people we were born to become.

This place is an endless frontier where everyone can claim their own space. Because the Earth has limited space, not everyone can have everything. But on the web, space is infinite, so everyone can have something to call their own.

Hyperlinks flatten hierarchies, pushing people of authority back down to a human level where they are once again accountable. It brings people with no power together, so they can build something greater than themselves. Through this, bureaucracies are broken down and antiquated authorities are wiped out.

Do you believe in this?

If you believe in all of this for yourself, there is one more thing: You must believe in it for all other people, everywhere, and forever.

And if you would work on it for yourself, you must work on it for everyone.

We considered doing a tour– New York, Chicago, San Francisco, etc, but those were cities we visited all the time anyway.

We also remembered that a lot of you had asked if we could come see you locally, all over the States and Canada, so we wondered how to make that work, too. We considered a lot of options.

But now, we think we’ve hit upon something that might be really great for everyone involved. We think we’ve found a way to travel anywhere you’d like to have us.

From Mitch’s blog:

The three of us want to bring the concepts in the two business books to you, but we are looking for leaders. All three of us command substantial public speaking and consulting fees, but we have decided to wave both the honorariums and travel expenses (within the United States and Canada) for those who can bring 200 people together in a room.

Click here to find out more.

The more I consider gatejumping, which we discuss in Trust Agents, the more compelling I find the idea.

Gatejumpers, for the record, are those who skip past useless middle steps (ie, gates) to get to their goals faster.

The reason I’m so excited about a possible Apple tablet, for example, is because a big player coming into this industry can wipe out middlemen. So, in the case of academic textbooks, which it seems Apple wants to get involved in, this means less debt for the average student.

Less Debt = More Freedom

Technological progress tends to cut out middlemen and leaves those who gain access to it better off (wealthier, healthier, or otherwise).

But those who profit protect their position at all costs. In the case of American healthcare, insurance companies will go to any length to protect current and future profits. They will do this using any means they have access to, since their survival may be at stake.

Middlemen benefit from the status quo, where buyers and sellers are divided. Those who protect the status quo prevent the liberation of resources and therefore, by definition, inhibit progress.

Consider Craigslist v. classified ads. Technology enabled easier connection, removing the need for buyers to pay for connection to sellers. As a result, billions of dollars are liberated and put back into the hands of people. They can then use this to better their lives in whatever way they see fit.

So, just as serfs and slaves have (largely) been replaced by robots, enabling a higher quality of life for all, many middlemen will be replaced by the social network’s ability to connect for free. This can happen because the social graph lays bare who has access to whom. We can then get to who we need, directly.

This is why LinkedIn is so powerful. As Cluetrain said ten years ago, hyperlinks subvert hierarchy. They do so by facilitating connections.

To Conclude

The job of the middleman is to connect two parties– real estate agents, for example, connect buyers/sellers to restricted information. But as technological progress occurs, this job becomes easier and easier– though fees will not go down.

The job of the gatejumper is to connect these same two parties without the need for the middleman. If they can create a technology that does this, all of humanity can profit… but only if the middleman can be wiped out.

The middleman will protect his position with past, current, and future profits.

Wiping out middlemen, when possible, then becomes a moral imperative.

Makes sense?

- Obama is not a US citizen
- Obama will take away citizens’ right to firearms
- Obama is a secret muslim
- etc.

You look at this man, his obvious intelligence, his benevolence, his values, and not least of all, his charisma, and you just know he’s a born leader. He’s going to be the man that changes the way the world looks at America, and hopefully the way America looks at the rest of the world.

For the first time in a long while, I gained a massive amount of respect for Digg users. Here’s why. Or, check out the screenshot from last night. Every single story with the HD-DVD key.

Update:This commenter says it best: “And to think, this was all caused by trying to keep these numbers hidden.“Update (2): As Bob said in the comments, only time will tell what people will think of what happened. The site has returned to normal now after a note that Kevin Rose wrote, saying he would be willing to make the site go down in flames for his users. And so, go figure, the users have now returned to talking about OS X, atheism, and burying people.

Today is Bum Rush the Charts. With your help, we will push one independent, podsafe track to #1 on the iTunes charts, and help send one lucky kid to college.

How can you help? Go here and follow the instructions. Half the proceeds from this will be going to a scholarship fund. And if you already own the song, gift it to a friend as well! You’ll be making your vote count twice.

Thanks for your help!

Google is the first place I went when I wanted news of the event (after finding out from Dembot and Rocketboom). This is the politics of influence on the web.

Considering the following news about Parc Avenue, I am making 25 “du Parc” stickers available to anyone that gives me their address. I will pay shipping and cost of printing for any sticker requests that are sent to me. Put your address in the comments, and they’re yours. Yes, for real.

La décision a été prise. La rue sera renommée avenue Robert Bourassa. J’offre donc 25 collants “du Parc”à n’importe qui qui m’envoie leur adresse. Je défrayerai le coût pour les imprimer et les envoyer. Laissez votre adresse dans les commentaires ci-dessous, et je vous les envoie. Oui, vraiment.

ATSA, a week-long festival that aims to represent the interest of the refugee, homeless, and disenfranchised, is now over. The Homeless Nation crew and I gathered our gear together and will be back at the office as of tomorrow morning. It’s been an intense week.

Never before have I come into such close contact with so many people that are in such drastic contrast to my way of life, all at once. It’s shocking how much you can learn about people in general by watching their rejected, marginalized groups.

When I got involved in this project, I really had no idea what it was I was involved with. Seeing all these people gather together, their intensity, hope, and sometimes anger, is eye-opening. I’m doing my best to assimilate what I’ve seen into my worldview, but it’s not easy.

Of course, there’s also the matter of one of my coworkers getting arrested last night on some pretty serious charges (on my day off, of all things). That’s something I’ll blog when I have some more information – right now, we’re really not sure what will happen. Later guys.

First, from the site:

There are tens of thousands of homeless people in Canada, with no address, no vote, nameless and faceless, and yet there is almost no documentation (statistical or personal) made by them or about them as a community or as individuals. If we continue to accept this status-quo of invisibility, an entire generation of homeless people will pass away without a trace.

People are speaking a lot these days about media democratization. In a previous podcast, I talk about democratization of power, as well as how to get there. Still, these goals are far off, despite the fact that everyone’s convinced how close we are. The power of media creation is still in the hands of the rich – those with expensive computers, broadband connections, and the necessary knowledge. And let’s not forget how difficult it is to create stuff when you’re working hard trying to support yourself (and your family, in certain cases).

When I look at Homeless Nation, I see people actively working to topple that structure. They give homeless people what is necessary to reach people, just like podcasters and videobloggers are trying to reach people. They aren’t deciding what’s worthy – instead, they’re placing that in the hands of their users. For that reason, I want to be a part of what they’re doing.

Next week, I’ll be working with them at ATSA (roughly translated, Socially Acceptable Terrorist Action) for a week in the park at Berri-UQAM, doing all sorts of audio and video recordings, interviews, etc. Come by if you’d like, we’d love to see you there.

Anyway, I’ll probably end up blogging more about what I’m going through with these guys as time goes on. Thanks to everyone that’s shown support for what I’m doing. You can subscribe to the Homeless Nation RSS feed here.

Click the image for more.

Chris Penn of the Financial Aid Podcast points us to a video of a UCLA cop tasering a student for what appears to be no reason at all. Please go visit his blog and add your comments there, this needs to be discussed.

I cannot even walk into a pawnshop, I’m not even kidding. They fucking freak me out.

Here’s the transcript for the show.

• Genelec & Memphis Reigns – Scorpion Circles
• Qwel – If It Ain’t Been in a Pawn Shop, Then It Can’t Play the Blues
• Juggaknots – Clear Blue Skies*

* Thanks to Patrick for sending me this track, which I totally love.

Dr Octagon = Great.
MTV = Wankers.

A few days ago I saw this great public service announcement done by Doctor Octagon (aka Kool Keith) about global warming. Trees was quickly removed from YouTube and now is unavailable for me to see on the MTV website due to “copyright issues.” So yeah, whatever.

Clickety-click the video. It’s really well made even though MTV are wankers.

Power moves and how to make them.

• Howard Lloyd – Various
• Canibus – ‘Master Thesis
• I Am The World Trade Center – ‘The Postcard’