One of the powerful trends that I am witnessing is the growing recognition in Public radio and TV that There is a huge opportunity for public media to secure a viable future by serving the hyper local community. I will post more later about what I have seen and heard about how this can be done for very little money. Please take it on faith for now that the how is now known.
The big idea is that in a hyper linked global world - the hyper local becomes the most important place. If the 20th century was about nationalism and the nation statee. The 21st will have to be about a shift in power back to the small local community.
I had a coffee with John Robb yesterday and had an aha moment about why this might be true.
As the world becomes more connected, it becomes more unstable and more vulnerable to even small shocks. Bird flu can sweep the world. Taking down part of the grid can turn off all the lights. Ecoli in spinach affects all spinach etc. In a global world, the planet becomes like and ocean to a hurricane. It is so flat that the hurricane builds in force.
It is only resilient community that can provide enougth friction to slow the gale force winds down.
What I learned from John was that in this hyper linked world, the only dampener can be a resilient small community. New Orleans is an example of a community that is not resilient. It looks outside for help. There is no help outside.
A resilient copmmunity looks to itself as does a resilient person. A resilient person does not blame others. She owns her own life. So too a community. Communities have given up control and their taxes to organizations that cannot care or help.
Resilience is achieved by taking these important things back. On PEI, we can develop local food security, local energy, we can set up barriers to movement. We can focus on our own kids and our own health and so on. For is health really about drugs or is it about a more connected life? Is education all bout schools or is it about a more connected family and community? Is politics all about the money needed to buy spots on the mass media or can it be about allowing the public to have a voice.
So how can communities become resilient?
Resilient communities need help to take their power back. They have been conditioned to be helpless and to rely on institutions that serve only themselves.
Public radio and TV can be the vital force in this context to help small communities work together to restore this resilience.
So by saving the hyper local community, we begin to save the world