The haters are out, there is no profitability on the horizon. Facebook is definitely well on it’s way to Stage 5 of the cocktail party: the cool kids are leaving, only the hucksters and sham artist are left. This party is no longer cool.
At the same time, we have a new administration that owes its existence and success to a mass movement of online communities binding together around key issues. That same administration is now trying to rally an even larger group– all 310 million of us– around key points of its agenda. Back in the 50s, the Feds would have duped Jimmy Stewart into making a propaganda film. That won’t work anymore. Thanks to those hippies over at the ACLU, the government cannot invade our privacy.
If only there were some way to get down to a majority of the citizenry, and find out their known associates, their political and sexual preferences, and their GPS coordinates. If only there were some network out there where people were ready to hand over all this information in exchange for some cheap games and zombie bites.
The federal government should nationalize Facebook. It’s not seeing any profit, yet it is sitting on top of an incredible amount of personal information, all surrendered willingly. The Obama administration could forward its plans at the grass roots level. Anyone who doesn’t play ball could be outted to their friend list. Together with Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates on terrorist threat levels and natural disasters, the Federal Government could finally achieve the true Jeffersonian democracy mass movement that has stood as an idealistic utopia since– well– Plato’s Republic.
Nationalize Facebook Now!
Are you sure that hasn’t already happened? Facebook is spending over a million dollars a month just for electricity for their servers. That sounds like a government spending plan to me.
I am not sure it has “officially” happened. I am relatively sure the Department of Milk and Cookies is mirroring the entire Db, as are a number of other federal agencies and major corporations.