howies liturgy? the power of community

steve sent me link to this piece at howies - seems like they have a liturgist in their midst - david hieatt? - the power of community. i'm making it worship trick 91, series 2...

The naysayers said the internet wouldn't change anything
But the cynics and the black clouds got it wrong

The power no longer rests with the individual
This is an open sourced collaborative new world

When they say phone a friend, they call you
When they ask the audience, you press the button

You are the wisdom of crowds
You are the community

The community has the imagination of millions
The lone inventor has just his to inspire him

It used to be that questions looked for answers
Now solutions go in search of questions

You will be the change in climate change
You will find a better set of words to go here

Tim Berners-Lee built the web
But it was you that gave it its purpose

Now you build encyclopedias
Blogs are the new newspapers

You are the television company
You are the media

You review the books, the films and the bands
You create the celebrity's

You build the corporations
And yes, it scares them.

You are the power
You are the revolution

You are top dog now
The chief banana

Enjoy

Comments

[jon birch]

food for thought

[Stewart]

I posted this on my blog and got this comment: http://swryv.wordpress.com/2007/02/01/community-is-you/#comments Made me take a step back and think...

[jonny]

i think i liked two things about it - the use of language. things like 'you are the wisdom of crowds, you are community...' but i also liked its positive engagement with the internet. of course there's a crap side as well. but too often christians berate popular culture and technology rather than celebrate it...
i simply don't buy the manipulation of the millions or that the masses are gullible - that's a sort of marxist cultural studies approach from the seventies. i think peoples use of and interaction with media is a lot more complex and people are not just duped...

[Stewart]

I have to say that I love the writing, and tend to agree with you. I think that the internet makes it less likely that people can be fooled or manipulated because there is always someone out there digging away at every story to check its veracity. The lonley girl 15 fake on youtube is a great internet example.

I'd still strike a note of caution on the masses being manipulated. It's still very possible. We're in a war that no-one wanted...

I watched V For Vendetta the other day and loved the fact that the lone voice wasn't enough. People had to turn up to make the change happen. Does the net encourage that? Or is it too easy for people like me to post on my little blog and think that because 3 people read it I'm changing the world?