Broaden The Second Superpower By Narrowing It

Backup page - click on page title to return to current version

Second superpower people identify themselves as citizens of the world, and care about social development, collaboration, innovation, open societies, and commons. (Jim Moore, in Charlie Nesson's great idea)

Their are plenty of people on-line who might see themselves as part of the second superpower -- until they read something like this, because they do not identify as world citizens, or they consider social development to be at it's peak (or slipping and needing to go back to some other values), or they prefer the traditional over the new, or privacy, security, or strong private property rights over the commons.

In his descriptions of the second superpower, Moore has added in some of his other values (those above, environmentalism). Doing this will (indeed already has), lead to it being seen as simply another expression of some existing orientation.

For the second superpower to be relevant to "the needs and dreams of all 6.3 billion people in the world", its principle(s) must be narrow as possible, and its proponents must trust that their other interests will be heard and included in the ongoing dialogue and action. Here's a working statement, in public beta. I can imagine it getting a little longer, but not much:

We of the second superpower have differing views on many subjects, but strive to live up to these ideals:

Respect for you, and for all people, including those who oppose us.

Persistence in expressing our experiences, our values, and our requests.

These highlight the valuable learnings that so many people have gained by sustained participation on-line, from bulletin boards and UseNet, to the more modern phenomena of WikiWiki and WebLog conversations. I considered dropping the second ideal, as it is a likely consequence of respecting oneself, but it seemed important enough to say explicitly. Another important consequence is that we strive to have respect even for those who are not respecting us. A third is that we strive to have respect for ourselves even when we are not living up to our ideals.

Please do comment.

Created 2003 Apr 09 Wed PM