(Originally published in Greater Democracy)

Roger Hurwitz has provided some wonderful comments to Jock’s insightful commentary on the master narrative. He refers to Lyotard claiming that there are no longer master narratives. He questions if there is a Master, or ‘Mastah’ narrative, is there a slave narrative? He suggests that topology is the topic and suggests that we need to think about the role of self-organization.

Yet perhaps that gets to the crux of what Jock is saying. The master narrative, or perhaps meta-mastah narrative is about how changes in technology are affecting the dynamic between top down organization and bottom up organization. We saw this as a major dynamic in the Democratic presidential primaries. The Kerry campaign and the Bush campaign are both tilted more towards top down organization which is why the dynamic hasn’t been as apparent in the presidential election, but it is still there.

At the root of the question is where does the power reside? How is authority determined? The bully pulpit of the presidency and the brand of large corporations carry a certain imprimatur. These are the authorities. This is where power resides.

Yet Enron and Worldcom have tarnished this imprimatur and the misinformation from the White House has weakened the authority of that office. At the same time, through the use of technology self-organization has become much simpler. Napster and all its offspring have empowered individuals to more effectively challenge the current power structure.

In a country where voter participation has been declining, we have been moving from a bottom up oriented democracy further and further to a top down oriented plutocracy. Gov. Dean’s phrase, “You have the power” is a profound call for citizens to challenge the existing power structures and alter the course of our country back to a more bottom up democratic direction.

Yet Napster and Gov. Dean’s presidential campaign were about changing the mode of distribution. The distribution channels are changing. Napster isn’t around, but its offspring are flourishing. Gov. Dean is no longer running for president, but the blogs and mailing lists are busier than ever.

In his post, Something is going on here, Mr. Jones, Jock talks about the next phase. Not only is distribution being wrestled from the hands of large corporations and powerful political organizations, so is production. Jock is right to be looking at New Voyages. It is an example of the movement of not only distribution, but also production to the edges.

I discussed this briefly with my daughter who is off at college. We had started our discussion talking about http://mediamatters.org/static/video/crossfire-20041015.wmv >Jon Stewart’s attack on Crossfire. The only time she ever sees Comedy Central is if someone downloads a video of it and shares it with her. More significantly, what her classmates talk about is not Crossfire or Comedy Central. It is content produced near the edge. It isRed Vs. Blue, it is Jib Jab, and it is Foamy the Squirrel.

Concurrent with that, while Gov. Dean’s Democracy for America, does what it can to support major candidates, like Kerry, Obama, or Richard Morrison who is running against Tom Delay, it has also been very focused on the small local races, like my wife’s. These small local races are where politicians and policies are being produced near the edge.

People often talk about shifts in power. Some people have observed generational shifts in power. We are moving from the World War II generation of world leaders to a Vietnam War generation of world leaders. Others have questioned the massive registration of new voters, especially young voters and single women voters will make the transition is closer to that of nearly a century when women first voted in large numbers. Or, as others have suggested will the changes of technology bring about social change closer to the changes that Gutenberg brought hundreds of years ago.

Whichever model ends up fitting the current environment, there is something is going on here, Mr. Jones, and you don’t need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. However, we must also remember the dance of Shiva and that at some point, the new producers will become the status quo which a new generation will challenge.