May 16, 2007
From Voice of the Proletariat
State of the banniNation Address - May 16, 2007
As we welcome our thousandth member, we'd like to pause and reflect on our origins, assess our current status, and look to the future. Living as we do in "Internet time," it's nice to take a moment to plant a stake in the ground, look at the world around us and at each other, and celebrate the unique community that is the banniNation.
Our community was born from strife, frustration, and a pent-up collective desire to speak our minds freely. Whenever people who have historically felt the freedom to express themselves within a shared context find themselves constrained in that expression, tensions rise and tempers flare - that's just simple human nature. That shared context might be a political party, a religion, or an Internet discussion site. Regardless of the nature of the shared context, the result in human terms is the same - if people feel that they're being stifled, they tend to push back.
Such was our experience. The specific details of the conflicts that spurred the development of the banniNation grow less relevant by the day, and it would serve little purpose to attempt to recapitulate them here. Suffice it to say that a group of free thinkers banded together, shared a wild idea, and launched a site. The first couple of days were sheer, unadulterated chaos as scores of people vented their frustrations and reveled in the free expression of whatever sentiments took their fancies. After the initial spasms of creation were behind us, we looked at one another and realized that our sense of community had somehow survived the uproar - we no longer were defined as a group of refugees from some other place, we were a vibrant and viable community in our own right. At that point, we assumed a new collective identity - we became the banniNation.
Today, we look at our fellow citizens and see a wealth of ideas, ideologies, viewpoints, and convictions. Among us, we have an impressive assemblage of talents, skills, and abilities. More than that, however, we share a dream - the dream of a free society in which no voice is stifled, no opinion is quashed. We dare to reach for what some would say is an impossible ideal - a forum in which every member is free to speak.
Have we achieved this dream? Certainly not. Will we continue to strive towards this dream? We certainly hope so. We are in this together, citizens - the success or failure of this grand experiment depends upon the participation of every citizen. The engineers that build and maintain and develop the software are doing everything they can to enable the banniNation to function as a free and fair marketplace of ideas, but in the final analysis it is up to all of us to make this community work. If it fails, it will join countless other failures in the dustbin of history - but think of the possibilities if we succeed! Wouldn't you like to help make history?
As we look to the future, we know that we've got a lot of work to do. There will be challenges for the software engineers, user interface experts, and financiers. Mistakes will be made, catastrophes will occur, and the measure of our convictions will be taken by our response to setbacks. Life is never easy - that's just the nature of the game. If we continue to share the dream, however, no mountain will be too high and no valley too low - we'll encourage one another, keep striving toward our ideal, and thrive.
We of the banniNation share this pledge - we may not agree with one another, but we agree that each of us has the right to disagree. If that results in a more chaotic or spontaneous experience than some sites are comfortable with, that's too bad. We are who we are.
We are the banniNation, and WE ARE NOT AFRAID! Site (C) Banned Ventures, LLC 2007. Logo (C) Untrustworthy. Report abuse to abuse AT bannination DOT com
