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I do detest answering to myself, but I thought of something that might get us closer to a democracy definition (admittedly I didn't previously define my terms either). It has been said so often that I cannor credit the originator, but democracy is not just one entity one vote every four (or whatever) years. That is actually a very small part of democracy, any nutbar down the block can cancel my vote (he thinks I'm a nutbar too, and it is probably a cointoss which of us is more correct, the coin may well stand on end). Of much more importance is that your elected (or slected or whatever, I take your point that 'one entitiy one vote' is problematic online) representative is accessible, will listen to your concerns, and (if you're not Jim Fleming or his slightly smarter brother Jeff Williams), try to rectify them. That simply does not obtain with ICANN, voices (even minority voices, never mind that in most cases they are the majority) are simply ignored. You pull the curtain and mark your X every coupla years and figure that is democracy. And some of the main political contributers and lobbyists, let's take the pharmaceutical industry for an example, fill in the rest of the time, and get what they want. So we (Canadians, eh) have busloads, even trainloads, of US seniors coming up here for cheap meds. BigPharma throws their weight and money around up here too, but they know where the big payoff is, so that is where they throw a (probably disproportionate) amount of their substantial resources. Well, ICANN is even worse, you can't even mark an X to decide who gets lobbied, influenced, bribed, et cetera. If your autonomous network is in the loop you're stying (as the kids say), if not, you're fscked (as us old folks say). That isn't democracy, that isn't even a dictatorship, that is some new word I haven't heard yet, the world of Worldcon, Enwrong, and Martha Stewardship, let's call it by its birthplace: Americacy. Sorry, it doesn't wash. My last hi-tek job came to me from the US and in turn I lost it to India (where they've got some extremely skilled folks, I bear no grudge). In another coupla years it is estimated that every second computer online will be in China, I think the US is predictably fourth amongst the also-rans. So you won't even be in the third world, virtually speaking. Pride goeth before a fall, and (regardless of your military might or Hollywood culture or hubris) I doubt anyone in the rest of the world will go out of their way to be there to catch you. -g
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