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One of my favorite movies this summer has been King Arthur. (I save money by watching cable channels.)
The idea, which is supposedly based upon recent archeological studies, is that Arthur was actually a Roman soldier at the end of the empire, fighting the locals alongside indentured knights from Sarmatia (in what’s now Ukraine). What gives him nobility is his belief in principle, in freedom. He claims it’s being taught in Rome, but in fact Rome has rejected, and killed, the teacher he follows.
It’s when Arthur learns that Rome has rejected what he was taught that he resolves to fight for England, for its native "Wolds," against the Saxon, who represent the coming dark ages. And in doing this, he and his knights become legends, throughout those Dark Ages and beyond.
Keeping the spark alive is vital, no matter the odds, because the spark can be re-lit. It’s like what Billy Crystal’s mage says in The Princess Bride – "mostly dead is part alive." (All dead is "let’s rifle his pockets.")
There are times when, facing the idiocies of this Administration and
(perhaps more important) the short-term corporate values which support
it, that I despair of this medium, and of this time.
Yet still I stay at it. Still I speak on behalf of simple, seemingly
ignored principles. Transparency. Connectivity. Science. Consensus.
During this time I have sought growth and truth in many directions.
In Moore’s Law. In Always-On. In Howard Dean. In fiction. In
generational theories of history, a winter which must be got through to
reach the spring.
At the center of my current work is open source, a charge I have expanded into a
political philosophy which, I have asserted, is the Goldwaterism of our
time. And I
have tried to focus that philosophy on what should be its chief
priorities, starting with the idea that what our leaders think are the
real issues in fact are trivialities.
I console myself with the knowledge that, 40 years ago, Goldwater
Conservatives were in fact much further from power than Open
Source Democrats are today. And that, at every key turn in our history,
it appears that the whole edifice of the American Experiment is about
to collapse.
It’s that possibility, in fact, that stimulates our most important
changes. Ending slavery. Progressivism. The New Deal. They were all the
results of times where the edifice seemed ready to collapse, unless
people did something. So people did.
Yet I realize there is small comfort in that. There is no real
assurance. Just because we have avoided the precipice several times
before does not mean we will again. Just because history shows you
patterns doesn’t mean the patterns will automatically repeat, just as
technical analysis of stock charts won’t tell you when a dog is really
a dog.
It’s at these times that a flick like King Arthur appeals. It may
take 1,000 years. We may all pass into legend. But if we stay strong,
stay brave, and stay true to our beliefs, we will prevail.
Because, in the end, we’re right.
