The Impact of the Internet Revolution in Making the Present World More ‘Cosmopolitan’
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Transcript of The Impact of the Internet Revolution in Making the Present World More ‘Cosmopolitan’
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University of Flensburg
European Studies
WS 2010/2011
The Impact of the Internet Revolution in making the
Present World More Cosmopolitan
By Borjan Gjuzelov
European Contemporary History
Prof. Dr. Hauke Brunkhorst and Prof. Dr. Miguel Vatter
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Table of contents:
1 Introduction
2 A word or two about the term Cosmopolitism
2.1 Origins of the term Cosmopolitism
2.2 The different perspectives of the Cosmopolitism.
3. The internet revolution and the rise of the new 21st century cosmopolitism
3.1 The internet revolution
3.2 World Wide Web and its influence on the recent world changes
3.3 The free software and the new left
4. The internet and the new legal and institutional challenges (how to regulate it)
5. Conclusion
Abstract:
Cosmopolitism has always been a synonym of something opposed to the state and the
traditional state and borders world order. Even from the ancient times it was a
synonym for totality and universalism opposed to the polis-oriented idea of small
different entities, which existed fragmented and spited. Today, in the time of
postindustrial era, while the information becomes the strongest political instrument,
information technology and its outcomes like social networks, wiki-based systems and
the new ways for informal education start to be considered as big factors which will
eventually change the character of the world politics. The spread of information, which
is enabled by the rapid development of the Internet, means that the power will be more
widely distributed, and informal networks will undercut the monopoly of traditional
bureaucracy. The big ones such as: governments, corporations and international
organizations, all of them highly centralized and elitist, will lose their domination; will
have less power and new opponents in the small ones. On the other hand, the
voluntary forms of organization and individuals, due to the Internet, will have the
biggest benefit from the free motion of information and will become new players in the
worlds political arena. The creation of the cosmopolitan civil society, which will act on
a global level, has just started
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1. Introduction:
To date, globalization has led to a spread of democratic regimes all over the world, a
considerable increase in the number of working or normative democracies.1 The worlds
elementary political values, the rule of law and the respect of basic human rights, are spread
on a global cosmopolitan level. Compared to the past, the current era can be called a free and
democratic era, where most of the humans enjoy the civilization benefits of the long
evolution of philosophical, political and legal ideas. However, current democracies and state
or inter-state systems are far from being perfect, because there is still big room for future
improvement and development, or in other words, for further evolution. Furthermore the
present world is faced with new challenges which are determined by the rapid development
of information technology. This paper is concentrating on the latest events that have shown
how the Internet revolution has started to change the environment around us and how this
revolution may affect our present and future lives.
In the following pages, the impact that the Internet revolution has in the lives of different
political entities will be discussed, starting from individuals to the more complex groups and
organizations, and we will try to prove that: The internet revolution is making the present
world more cosmopolitan.
That is the main thesis of this paper, which we will be discussed in the following pages. In
the first part there will be a very brief theoretical explanation of the term Cosmopolitism, its
origin, its different perspectives and the present most important institutional forms. Later on,
we will discuss the rise of the Internet and its impact in changing the societies and making the
world different. The rapid development of the informational technology has already made its
contribution in shifting the information and the power of information from the traditional
centers of power to the new internet based forms of voluntary organizations where simple
individuals can have an impact in the present world and even more influence in the flow of
history. All of this has been achieved thanks to the Internet and its opportunities for rapid
share of information and data. Also an emphasize will be put on the current most relevant and
recent examples of political issues directly connected with the rise of the Internet. Finally,
few words will be said for the further political and legal challenges related with the impact of
the internet revolution and its still unregulated gray zone of influence in the modern 21st
century societies.
1 Hauke Brunhorst, Normative Learning Processes, pp: 138
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2. Different forms of cosmopolitism.
Cosmopolitism is very wide term, which can be interpreted very broadly. Because of that, we
think that in relation to the main idea of this paper, this term requires additional explication
and more precise definition. That is not an easy task, so we will try to take just a slice of the
big cosmopolitism pie and work just with one more precisely defined meaning of the
Cosmopolitism and the adjective cosmopolitan. It is obvious that there will be much more to
say, about cosmopolitism, for its history and its different meanings but in interest of the
limited space for this paper we will be as brief as possible, providing the reader only the basic
definitions and explanations, which will be used as starting premises for the final idea of this
paper.
2.1 Origins of the term Cosmopolitism
The word cosmopolitan derives from the Greek word kosmopolits (citizen of the world),
and, has been used to describe a wide variety of important views in moral and socio-political
philosophy. The basic consensus shared by all cosmopolitan views is the idea that all human
beings, regardless of their political affiliation, do (or at least can) belong to a single
community, and that this community should be cultivated.2
Cosmopolitanism is an old project, and it is not specifically European, except in the notion
that combines the cosmos with the polis, the universe with the civil society. 3 For early Greek
stoic philosophers the cosmos was a polis because it was a perfect rational order, and to live
in accordance with it was the telos of the political animal (zoon politicon). 4
So far, it can be said that cosmopolitism is still a dynamic and open concept, which is
changing and reshaping over the time, and can be interpreted in various different ways. As
such, it can be argued that the Cosmopolitanism is a multiple invention of the evolution.5
Because of that the discussion for the future possible developments and forms of the
cosmopolitism and its directions, is always interesting and provocative.
2 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cosmopolitanism/ (10.03.2011)
3 Hauke Brunhorst, Normative Learning Processes, pp 71
4 ibid
5 Hauke Brunkhorst, Normative Learning Processes, pp 72
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2.2 Few different perspectives of the Cosmopolitism.
There are many different versions, ideas and perceptions of cosmopolitanism that interpret
this term in many different ways, some focusing on political institutions and legal theories,
others on moral norms or relationships, while others are focusing on the open markets or
different forms of freedom of cultural expression. As many authors tried to define the
cosmopolitism from different perspectives, different meanings were found, so in this part, the
following differentiation of few different (but not contradictory) interpretations of the
cosmopolitan ideas will be made:
First, we will start with the most common, moral interpretation of the cosmopolitism. It
consists of the philosophical perspective which puts all human beings at same level, as a
citizens of the world that are morally committed to an essential humanity above and beyond
the reality of ones particularistic attachments (such as nationality, kinship, religion).6 It
means that this interpretation of the cosmopolitism is closely related to the individuals and
their own perception about the others. Cosmopolitan is any person, who identifies himself
as a part of the universal set of values, worthy for all human beings, accepting the differences
between them and tolerating the different cultures and traditions. This set of universal values
is against the borders (of any kind) and mental frames that are created by them and for unity
of the human kind. This position argues that everyone deserves equal treatment and enjoys
the same basic human rights. In other words, this cosmopolitism has the openness, tolerance,
and equality as its own basic premises.
The second perspective in our short story about different kinds of Cosmopolitism is the
cultural cosmopolitism, that puts a strong emphasize on the problem of recognition difference
and the respect for the variety of cultures7. The problem of accepting the others, is in the
core of this cosmopolitan perspective. This is extremely important for the present globalized
world, as opposed value to the cultural nationalism and the rising hidden cultural racism,
which stands behind the idea about developed and civilized societies and cultures from one
side and the undeveloped and uncivilized on the other . For cultural cosmopolitism, there are
no such terms, the cultures can be different by not less civilized, and as such the differences
are welcomed This cosmopolitism has again the openness, tolerance, and equal treatment
as its basic premises, but in this case it is more oriented to the (different) groups and cultures,
6 Magdalena Nowicka, Maria Roviso ; Cosmopolitism in Practice ; Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2009 ; pp 3.
7 Ibid, pp 4.
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than to the individuals, as that was the case with the first example of the moral
cosmopolitism.
The third way of cosmopolitan reasoning is the economic cosmopolitism. It advocates free
trade and abolishing of all various customs and tariffs that can introduce a world in which
markets and not governments take care for the need of the people.8 Economic cosmopolitism
was arguing that everyone will have some benefit from the abolition of protectionism, and it
can be now argued that the idea which was avant-garde for its own time as a clear opposition
to the mainstream mercantile economic approach, today is a leading intellectual stream in the
economics. Furthermore, in the idea of ideal global market, war would be in no one's
interest9; instead of that, the nations and individuals will cooperate on the basis of their
economic interests. Following this, today the economic success of European Union, thanks to
the creation of the common market, is the best argument for this kind of economic
cosmopolitism.
Finally, there is probably the most essential cosmopolitan approach, which is the political
cosmopolitism as a synergy of all other already mentioned cosmopolitan views. Because of
that, it is also probably most difficult to define, what exactly cosmopolitism is, from this
political perspective. We can agree that the basic premises of the moral and cultural
cosmopolitism, the openness, tolerance and equal treatment to individuals and to groups,
together with the economic ideal about single global market are creating the bigger picture
of political cosmopolitism. The same can be interpreted as an idea of global governance,
where the initiative and power for human action will be organized from top to bottom, or
even more importantly with the idea about global civil society, where the distribution of
power and initiative is organized horizontally and voluntary in a more bottom to the top
shape.
Both concepts of political cosmopolitism previously mentioned are much more than just a set
if ideas; they are represented in the present world, and they have some influence on global
level. For instance, the concept of global governance is represented with the various
international government organizations, mainly UN and formal actions which are oriented to
the whole world and, as such, they can be named as cosmopolitan. However those
organizations stayed highly centralized and elitist and can hardly be considered as really
8 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cosmopolitanism/ (10.03.2011)
9 ibid
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cosmopolitan in the sense of global civil action, or as what global citizenship as a civic
concept should be. Without doubt UN and some other international organizations in one point
of the past, especially in the post-World War Two period, had a huge impact in creating the
cosmopolitan ideas possible, but now at this current point, they can be hardly criticized10
and
are really ineffective It has decreased their legitimacy and opened space for new forms of
human organizing, which are less elitist and more horizontally and voluntary organized.
Evident example of that is the continuous rise of the non-governmental sector. Moreover non-
governmental organization, formal or informal ad hoc groups and movements have left their
city or national borders and started to act on a global level. But could the rise of global civil
society become modern political cosmopolitism of the 21th century? How do the
technological improvements and the Internet revolution influence on the rise of the same?
Some of the possible answers would be given later in the paper.
As a conclusion of this chapter, which had the intention to give us better definition and more
clear idea about cosmopolitism, we can say that, no matter from which perspective (moral,
cultural, economic or political) do we observe the idea of cosmopolitism, it is important to
understand that ancient idea about kosmopolits (citizen of the world) today is interpreted in
various ways. In order to clarify the final idea of this paper, we will further concentrate on the
political form of cosmopolitism, mainly on the civil, non-governmental one.
3 The Internet revolution and the rise of the new 21st century cosmopolitism
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, we are living in a fully-fledged world society
with a global system of states, world organisations, global media of dissemination, world
markets, world politics, and problems which concern everybody equally all over the world. 11
Influenced by a huge development in informational technology, the world is becoming
smaller and the distances (physical, cultural, intellectual) get every day smaller and
smaller. We can easily say that the Globalization is todays fashion of cosmopolitanism,
where the ideas about single community and polis for all start to be a reality. Everyday
10
More of the same criticism in the article Criticism of the United Nations available at the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_United_Nations 11
Hauke Brunkhorst, Normative Learning Processes, pp 68
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millions of people are traveling, exchanging their knowledge and ideas and are living more or
less in one big single culture similar to the basic ideas about cosmopolitism in ancient times.
But how is Internet revolution related with the abstract cosmopolitan ideas which have taken
place in ancient times?
Further on, the impact of the Internet in making the world more cosmopolitan will be
discussed, about the positive and negative effects and influences of this process of
technological cosmopolitization, for which we will use some examples from the recent
history and finally we will say a word or two about future possible developments and
perspectives.
3.1 The Internet revolution
The rise of Internet in the recent twenty years was significant; moreover its impact for the
change of the world and societies was even bigger. The rapid spread of Internet, was the
fastest change in the history of the media. Web was the fastest-growing communications
medium in history, reaching its first 50 million users in four yearsas compared with 36
years for radio and 13 for television12
That is why the term Internet revolution has been
introduced.
Every day new technologies contribute to this permanent revolution, which makes the
possibility for transfer and exchange of information available for all. The Internet revolution
is not just a technological revolution, it is much more than that and it can be compared with
the Gutenberg's invention of printing in the mid-1400s13 or the Industrial Revolution in the
19th
century. The Internet revolution has a political and social dimension, because it changes
the character of world society and implies change in almost all segments of human life. The
various kinds of information that can be exchanged could be pictures, videos, knowledge,
various public or secret documents (the recent case of Wikileaks) and simply everything that
just before few decades was unimaginable to be transferred on intercontinental destinations in
just a friction of the second. People can send E-mails, read newspapers on line, discuss
12
John Naughton, CONTESTED SPACE: THE INTERNET AND GLOBAL CIVIL SOCIETY, 2001, pp 13
13 Clay Shirky, From 'why?' to 'why not?, The Guardian, 18 May 2009, http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/may/18/internet-future
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different issues and organize themselves in various virtual or real forms of organization
Furthermore, they can talk with their relatives and friends on Skype even if they are
thousands kilometers away: parents can be virtually close to their children and lovers can
maintain long distance relationships This and much more is made possible thanks to the
everyday smaller and smarter electronic boxes, connected in the Internet network which are
changing our lives even when we are not completely aware of that. Finally, long distance
studying programs, on line business meetings, the emergence of on line markets (like
Amazon or E-bay), together with the social networking and blogosphere and many other
similar things were all unimaginable before 20 years, but now they are unavoidable reality for
all of us, which has strong effect on our everyday life.
In addition, the possibilities that Internet is allowing for the individuals and groups to
exchange various kind of information with rapid speed opened new possibilities for creation
new forms of organization. Even more important, because of its horizontal architecture it is
almost impossible to make the Internet subject of regulation and governance from the
national or international institutions, which makes it even more attractive in the context of
political activism and the new potentials for such activities thanks to the Internet revolution.
3.2 World Wide Web and its influence on the recent world changes
As we have already mentioned, the impact of the Internet in changing the world is enormous.
Due to the fact that it affects almost all parts of the world where humans live, we can also say
that the same effect is cosmopolitan and it stands by itself. Moreover the same effect helps in
making the world more cosmopolitan too. In the following part of the paper we will discuss
the recent world events which were strongly affected by the unlimited power of Internet and
how there effects are related with the main idea of this paper, about the huge influence of
Internet in making the world more cosmopolitan.
First we will mention the case with Wikileaks. Namely, it emerged as a global issue in the
final months of the year 2010, when the voluntary web page wikileaks.com published
shocking documents, which before have been kept as classified diplomatic and military
secrets. Suddenly the worlds public saw some of the dirty underwear of their democratically
elected representatives. The worlds political elites were mobilized, because of the new
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danger of uncontrolled information, shared on the network and available for all common
citizens. The new media showed their power and stunning potential. In the same time the old
fashioned media (CNN, BBC) got a great opportunity to have great material for sensationalist
news, which can be (again!) sold for high profit, while the academia was caught unprepared
and confused.
All in all, there were various different reactions, some of them were positive and happy that
the secrets are available for the masses, some were against and strongly affected by the
unlimited flow of information In the same time, the usual theoreticians of conspiracy had
full hands of work for creating yet another one of their usual shocking conspiracies. The
debate was raised: do the citizens as holders of the sovereignty in their democratic regimes
have the right to know what their political elites are doing? Why do we need government
secrets in conditions when we think that the world democracy, compared with the past, is at
its peak? The answers can be various, but no one can argue against the fact that if the
transparency is one of the basic principles of the democracy, then wikileaks is the newest tool
for cosmopolitan global democratization. The fact that, fortunately or not, Wikileaks has
emerged against the big democracies, namely USA, does not make it less valuable. As one
Macedonian politician recently said, Wikileaks is the modern Robin Hood14
, who takes the
wealth from the rich, (in this case, the wealth is the information and the monopoly of the
same, held by the big ones) and gives it back to the poor, in this case the individuals, who
have been hitherto uninformed and in that sense treated as the small ones.
Wikileaks, was just a first step for creating a global civil society15
, which is voluntary, well
organized, with clear purposes and ideas, and opposed to the informational monopoly that
great countries and other multinational and supranational institutions have. Furthermore and
probably most important, this network is almost horizontally organized and as such has
achieved to create problems for the traditional, best functioning forms of formal, strictly
vertical organized entities. As such it showed the real power and the potential that the Internet
network has gained. Because of the above stated arguments, it can be argued that Wikileaks
is a pure cosmopolitan creature, thanks to the new opportunities that informational
technology provides us in the modern times of today.
14
Filip Petrovski, Julian Assange Modern Robin Hood, 18.12.2010, http://www.filippetrovski.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=231:julien-asanz-moderen-
robin-hud&catid=41:kolumna&Itemid=84 15
Ivica Bocevski, Panel discussion about the impact of Wikileaks, Skopje, 22.12.2010
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Other important examples, where we can find the marvelous impact of the Internet in
organizing masses and articulating the public opinion are the most recent developments in the
Middle East and North Africa, mainly in Egypt and Libya. The protests which broke the
dictatorship regime of Hosni Mubarak and are on the way to do the same in Libya16
and the
other countries in that region, were organized and coordinated on line, by the social networks,
mainly Twitter and Facebook. Millions of people went out of their homes, on the streets,
asking for change and breaking the authoritarian regime. Authoritarian regimes tried, but did
not succeed to regulate and censure the Internet communications and protect themselves
The collective spirit was created with just few clicks, on line and the famous crowd
psychology of Gustav Le Bon showed its even bigger and uncontrolled power, this time with
the help of the Internet and the possibility for rapid share of information through the social
networks. These events showed that social networks are not just a toy for filling the free time
of millions of Internet users, but can be also used as a basic tool for social mobilization of the
masses (on a horizontal level!), asking for a change in their lives and bringing down their
illegitimate rulers and governments.
Without a doubt, this time the Internet (and not USA or UN or NATO!) showed its potential
for democratization and making the democratic values universal for the whole world.
3.3 The free software and the new left
The concept of free software dates back from the 80s, and consists of very unconventional set
of ideas which today have important impact in the shaping of the present Internet society, and
because of that we think that is worth to be mentioned in this paper.
Free software is a set of practices for the distributed collaborative creation of software source
code that is then made open and freely available through a clever, unconventional use of
copyright law.17
In other words, Free Software is a creation of millions of people working on
a voluntary basis, and using the Internet for redeveloping and sharing the skills and
16
In the time of writing this (10.03.2011), Libyan dictator Gaddafi is struggling to keep his dominance, by forbidding civil protests and killing civilians which are against his regime.
17 Christopher M. Kelty , Two bits: the cultural significance of free software , Duke University Press, 2008
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knowledge in order to provide others free of charge and free for further developing software
which is good and functional in the same way as the ordinary software (Windows,
Macintosh) created by the big multinational profit-oriented companies. This means that the
concept of free software can be positioned against the big multinational software companies
as producers of the mainstream software and holders of the patents for their know-how
knowledge. Because of that, they were holders of the monopoly of the production and
development of software and made big, very big profits (Bill Gates). On the other hand, with
the emergence of the free software as a product of the small ones, the Internet becomes
more liberal and open environment. The monopoly of know-how power, which the
corporations have had before, was broken, thanks to the geeks18
, whose work changed forever
the Internet world and put a new dimension in the impact of the Internet revolution.
This is very important for our topic and for the emergence of the present from bottom to the
top cosmopolitism. Before its emergence, the Internet and the Informational technology
world in general was a product of few very powerful and rich entities (mainly Microsoft)
which had marvelous influence in it. Furthermore, they were protecting their intellectual
property with various copyright laws and patents and were restricting the further distribution
of the new technology only to certain individuals and societies which were able to pay for it.
Since the growing role of the Internet this knowledge becomes a civilizational benefit for all,
and as such too important to stay in the hands of a small group of people and enterprises, it
started to be non-sense that the right for further development and sharing is limited just to the
big ones. As a reaction of this, the free software activists developed the free software as a
bottom to the top project (made by individuals, not by corporations). Furthermore they
invented the concept of copy-left19 as a reaction to the closed and protectionist concept of
copyright. Because of this, the emergence of free software is very important for the
technological cosmopolitization because it broke the monopoly of the big ones, and as many
examples show in the past, changed the character of the society, mainly the character of the
Internet society.
As the anthropologist and the theoretician for free software Christopher M. Kelty puts it:
Free software appeared to be something shocking, something that economic history
suggested could never exist: a practice of creating software-good, software that was privately
18
The term Geek is considered to be more politically correct than the term Hacker, which often refers to some criminal activities, related with the use of the Internet. 19
More about this interesting play on words on the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft
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owned, but freely and publicly accessible. Free software, as its ambiguous moniker suggest is
both free from constraints and free of charge.20 Such characteristics seem to violate
economic logic and the principle of private ownership21
and as such it can be easily
concluded that, in the concept of free software, it is recognized as new leftist idea of the small
ones against the big ones, on a global level, without borders or other boundaries such as
software copyright laws and patents
To summarize: in the Internet world, virtual or real, free software activists and movement
should be considered as a new force from the left, a progressive monopoly-braking
alternative which matches with the basic cosmopolitan premises of openness, tolerance,
equality, creating the Internet into a civilizational benefit for all, even more decentralized and
available for the masses, independent from any center of power and all in all a lot more than
just capitalist invention created by narrow profit motivation.22
4. The Internet and the new legal and institutional challenges (how to regulate it)
After presenting the huge impact of the internet in the changing the present world and making
it more and more cosmopolitan, it is worth to rise a debate about the further challenges that
the Internet societies, which are affected by the mentioned technological cosmopolitization,
will face.
By this we mean the fact that the rapid technological development is really hard to follow by
the matching institutional and legal development. This is the most recent and relevant
challenge for the social scientists and legal theorists and in our opinion it is still not enough
examined. We showed that the state order is highly affected by the Internet and its
possibilities and purposely we did not put so much attention on the negative effects that
Internet can have. However we can agree that even if the impact of the Internet is marvelous
in creating a better world for all, it also has, as any other social phenomena, a negative side
because of which regulation is necessary needed.
As many other rapid changes in the history of the world, which changed the flow of history,
the Internet revolution affected various social relations and it should be followed by new, up
20
Christopher M. Kelty , Two bits: the cultural significance of free software , Duke University Press, 2008 21
ibid 22
Heiko Khoo, The Internet Revolution, http://www.marxist.com/internet-revolution-linux151099.htm
(10.03.2011)
-
to date institutional and legal framework. We can all agree on that. But the question is: how
the regulation should be made and what should be the subject of regulation? How to protect
the public good from not braking the basic liberalism premises, where is the point where
freedom of information flow is risking the security of the system? Can the Internet and its
rising power be the new Leviathan of the 21st century? How to limit its power? And that is
how the most frequent political and legal questions are raised again
It will be a duty of the new generation political and legal theorists to give answers to these
new questions, which will have to shape and create the new values and norms and will cope
with the latest social changes, impacted by the Internet revolution. This values and norms will
have to have effect on all people of the world in the new, 21st century Internet polis for all.
Cosmopolitan challenges were never more essential and compulsory then now, again, mainly
because of the Internet Revolution!
5. Conclusion
In this paper, it was shown that in the polycentric Internet environment which has got
everyday more and more participants, the old fashioned political forms of organization have
less and less monopoly of information and data. Following this, it was shown that simple
individuals are becoming ever stronger, and more able to reach beyond the borders of their
environment, city or country where they live.
The basic premises of all of the shown cosmopolitan perspectives, the openness, tolerance
and equality, can be easily found in the effects that Internet makes every day. Additionally,
the global values that are creation of the Internet, such as the free software movement, are
complementary with those of the modern soft left ideologies, so one may argue that the
Internet can be the most efficient tool not just for further mass democratization of the world,
but also a turning point, where the world will again turn left towards more tolerant and open
set of democratic ideas and practices, independent from the pure capitalism principles, such
as the protection of private property and the copyright laws. All in all, the next period will be
interesting to analyze, how the world will change, under the influence of the Internet
revolution and the possibilities which are now here, available with just one click.
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The Internet revolution has changed the world rapidly. In just a few decades it created new
opportunities but also new problems which are now starting to be a challenge for the
institutional and legal framework of the societies. The character of the societies changed as
well. The traditional elites are not any longer the holders of the monopoly of information, and
much more information is available widely for many people, with just one click, while they
are sitting in their confortable armchairs at home. Because of that, The big ones such as:
governments, corporations and international organizations, all of them highly centralized and
elitist, may lose their domination; have less power and new opponents in the small ones.
Additionally, individuals and the voluntary forms of organization, due to the Internet, will
have the biggest benefit from the free motion of information and will become the new
players in the worlds political arena. Following that, we argued that: the Internet
revolution is making the present world more cosmopolitan. The citizens of the world will
have more power to organize, act and create strong bottom-up organized entities and as such
to challenge and change the character of the world politics. The rise of the global civil society
just has started
-
Bibliography:
Christopher M. Kelty , Two bits: the cultural significance of free software , Duke University
Press, 2008
Clay Shirky, From 'why?' to 'why not?, The Guardian, 18 May 2009,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/may/18/internet-future
Filip Petrovski, Julian Assange Modern Robin Hood, 18.12.2010,
http://www.filippetrovski.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=231:julien-
asanz-moderen-robin-hud&catid=41:kolumna&Itemid=84
Hauke Brunhorst, Normative Learning Processes
Heiko Khoo, The Internet Revolution, http://www.marxist.com/internet-revolution-
linux151099.htm (10.03.2011)
John Naughton, CONTESTED SPACE: THE INTERNET AND GLOBAL CIVIL SOCIETY,
2001
Joseph S. Nye, The Reality of Virtual Power, 02.02.2011, http://www.project-
syndicate.org/commentary/nye91/English
Magdalena Nowicka, Maria Roviso ; Cosmopolitism in Practice ; Ashgate Publishing
Limited, 2009
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cosmopolitanism/
(10.03.2011)