The mid-term election was certainly a shining example of Democracy in all its imperfect beauty.  The will of the people was clearly apparent.  A President and his war were clearly rejected.  The American political conversation moved back to the middle.  The founding fathers vision of a government of checks and balances has been taken up by the electorate.  Change, discourse, consensus, compromise, bi-partisanship and a clear desire to chart a new course was the message of the electorate.

It feels like a door on a time and mind set has closed and a new one has opened.  The six years since the 2000 election has been a time of anger, fear, anxiety, and negativity in the United States.  The issues of the disputed 2000 presidential election, the stock market crash, 9/11, the rise of religious fundamentalism – and its strident ‘we are right and you are wrong’ arguments – governmental lies and deception, a war with Americans dying and no end in sight, and a knowledge that we are destroying our planet have all created a sense of despair and depression for a majority of Americans.  Many have expressed a sense of things spinning out of control, of America and the world having lost its way.

Since I am a futurist, people have, during the past year, asked me where we are going.  Inherent in the way they asked the question it was clear that they were in despair and looking for hope.  Read on.

I sense that this election closed a door …

It was twenty-five years ago this month that the PC was born.  In August of 1981 IBM launched the Personal Computer.  This of course was five years after Jobs and Wozniak came out with the Apple 1, but it was the PC, and it’s rapid acceptance first in the corporate world and then in homes that ushered in the explosive growth of personal computing.  The importance of the introduction of the PC cannot be overstated from the vantage point of 2006.

Prior to 1981 computing basically was mainframe computing.  Corporations and universities had air conditioned rooms housing large computers that were operated by Computer Operators and run by Computer Programmers and Systems Analysts.  I actually knew a number of people who has these job titles.  Anybody reading this know someone who currently works as a Computer Operator?  It is now something we all do to open ‘mail’, surf, work and create.

The innovation that Apple brought to the computing industry was first basically embraced by geeks and computer hobbyists, but it did show the way to desk top computing.  When IBM launched the PC it targeted its corporate user base with the IBM 5150 launched on August 12th 1981.  The model has 16 kilobytes of memory – yes, kilobytes. It used cassette tapes and floppy disks to load and save data – seen any of those at a garage sale recently? The last time I saw a floppy disk it was being used as a coaster.

 IBM had tried to sell PCs before …

This was one of those news stories that prompted an initial “What! Are you kidding?”. Hey, over the weekend the VP shot someone. We all have pop songs that rattle around in our brain only to pop up at odd times. The late 90s’ OMC song “How Bizarre How Bizarre” popped up in my brain within minutes.

Of course there were the very valid discussions about why this was kept under wraps for so long, what would have happened if someone had shot Cheney, would he or she have been give a protection against a law enforcement investigation, and, of course, who’s in charge, Bush or Cheney? And of course there was the “Guns don’t shoot people, Vice Presidents do” humor. All these discussions are extremely valid and must be continued. However, I want to discuss an aspect of this bizarre situation that I think points to a couple of developing trends that seem to have the power of irresistable force behind them.

It wasn’t the act of an accidental shooting that upset people. It was the impression that the truth was being withheld, and that the second highest elected official in the country didn’t seem to be accountable or want to be accountable to the American Public. That is what got people all riled up. The arrogance of the Vice President of the United States to not immediately provide an account of what happened, that is what bothered us.

In this post-digital age where we are all connected, where information flows freely …