At the end of WWII we saw the real beginnings of the social welfare state. This was when the concept of local community started to disappear and the state took on responsibility for things like what the education policy should be for all the schools in the country, and what the standard of healthcare should be.

Along the line people became more and more passive and reliant on the state and when bad things happened in the country people started saying, “They should fix that!”

It was the beginning of the nanny state. In this mode most of the people became vassals of the state. They went to their jobs, paid their taxes, and allowed the state to fundamentally take control of their lives.

Then along came the Internet.

People started talking to each other. People had different views. And even though many of their views turn out to be the same, the people who have those views actually function as separate individuals.

As separate individuals they are absolutely the opposite of the kind of creatures that they were, the kind of vassals that are reliant on the nanny state. In many respects they are a kind of “virtual libertarian” – a primal free market capitalist – even though their personal politics could be of any flavour at all.

This new virtual libertarian is totally misunderstood by governments, if they have even become aware of their existence.

The virtual libertarian rejects totally the controls that are quietly put upon them by governments and by business. The virtual libertarian rejoices in the ability to share information freely with his or her peers.

This new social order that is emerging has opinions that are diametrically opposed to almost every concept that is espoused today by the traditional powers that be – and particularly issues that face us all like the environment and the economy.

I had a conversation today with Silvia the CEO at Vquence (a company that I co-founded). She was telling me some of the statistics on YouTube videos for Australian politicians – basically how few the views are on these guys’ material.

Is it any surprise? YouTube deals in that which resonates. And that which resonates comes from the heart – and what comes out of the politicians’ mouths is so controlled by the head that it is irrelevant to the normal person.

This disconnect that the politicians have currently is going to become more and more critical over the next year or so.

At the moment P2P is still in the realm of the geeks and frankly so is online video.

But in the early nineties before Netscape graphics online were strictly for the geeks. And most mainstream business people didn’t even know what email was – and if they did – they thought it was irrelevant.

Amazing what a decade can do isn’t it.

And now we have a populace that is not just interested and awake. Now we have a population that is emerging from a fifty year social welfare sleep. This new virtual libertarian only needs to be motivated to move from being part of a horde into being part of a crowd. At that point that this happens, watch out because we will see the rise of a new kind of politics along with a new attitude to many things.

Let’s hope that it will signify a move into a great new age of enlightenment and not a dark age of totalitarian ignorance.

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