The
US Flat Earth Society vs. A New Political Reality
by
Meg Curtis, PhD
When
President Obama complains about the Flat Earth Society in America, he
needs to check his rear view mirror. His speeches address race and
sex. He refers to Edward Snowden as a "hacker." Obama is
the creation of the 1960s. His most famous words yearn for "Dreams
from My Father." Newsflash: This is the twenty-first century,
and Obama's strategies have not even begun to acknowledge the real
change in America's workforce.
First,
with every development of technology, communications workers have
upped their power ante. This group constitutes the "Communications
Workers of America (CWA) ... the largest communications and media
labor
union in
the United
States,"
according to Wikipedia. The
CWA, in turn, is "affiliated with the AFL-CIO,
the Canadian
Labour Congress,
and Union
Network International...and the worldwide membership of the AFL-CIO total[ed] 11,000,000, as of
2008." The CWA has its own connections, and those are not
limited to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in DC.
Second,
while Obama agonizes over race and sex, the following developments
have occurred:
"In
October 2003, 77 million persons used a computer at work, the Bureau
of Labor
Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported ....These workers accounted
for 55.5 percent of total employment. About 2 of every 5 employed individuals
connected to the Internet or used e-mail while on the job."
These
statistics cut across racial and gender lines. They practically
define "labor" now while the US President harps about the
birds, the bees, and skin.
Third,
we come to that elite group of high tech workers who, just like
Snowden and Obama—we hope—have security clearances. Even in 2011,
the Washington Post's research revealed that enough security
clearances had been issued to cover nearly the entire population of
Washington, DC. That report, described in "Checkpoint
Washington," admitted: "The official count is so much
greater than previous estimates that it caught security experts
off-guard."
Across
the board, this fall-out of the computer revolution seems to have
occurred without America's leaders recognizing its consequences.
Computer users should also now define the largest voting block in
this country, and they are ripe for some smart politicians' plucking.
Can America ever stop fighting the last war, and get onto current
challenges? Technology unites, threatens, and characterizes our
everyday life. The high tech wars have started, and America is right
in the middle of them. Where oh where is Obama?
For
further reading:
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