With the Civil War lingering past the campaign of 1864, but after Lincoln began his second term, Congress took another shot at the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery. The Illinois rail-splitter had this to say about the quest:
"We are like whalers who have been long on a chase: we have at last got the harpoon into the monster, but we must now look how we steer, or with one 'flop' of his tail he will send us all into eternity."
Lincoln was talking about democracy and the Union and states rights versus the right of the Republic to fight and survive and restore -- to fix the Constitution so that all could reap its promises. But the perfection of his rhetoric was its timelessness. He is talking about any struggle, fought hard, so let's borrow it here, and apply it to media in the digital age. We've struck the Internet, now we must steer.
3 comments:
Need an Internet captain with authority to steer that ship .... or one willing/allowed to at least try new things even if they don't always work .... Failure must be allowed so that success can be enjoyed
.....and resources must be committed in a way that the Web will grow, repairs can be made at sea, and new weapons added to the arsenal.
But yes, without a clear captain, all hands on deck is a recipe for chaos.
Great to have you here, by the way, and nice to be back.
An apt metaphor, indeed, since in both cases the thing we're hunting may be more intelligent than we are...
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