"The Basis of Optimism is Sheer Terror."

While reading the first couple of essays in Rebooting America and thinking about the need (or desire) for optimism, I was reminded of a paragraph from iSpy's introduction.

"Isn't interactivity, like communication, an unadulterated good, something that can help eliminate misunderstandings, overcome differences, and even empower the masses? Isn't it, in fact, the antidote to the depredations of mass society, a technological enhancement of democratic participation, the ability not just to see and hear, but to be seen and heard?"

When I read that in iSpy, I wrote it off as sarcasm because Andrejevic clearly wasn't considering interactivity as a means of democratic empowerment. I feel as though he believes there is the potential for positive uses of such interactivity, but they are overshadowed by the overwhelming negative of constant surveillance. But the authors in Rebooting America are encouraged to envision and plan a positive outcome for the age of interactivity. In the ever smaller digital enclosure, the authors are asked to cut doorways into a world without surveillance boundaries. 

While a little optimism is a nice change from the overall depressing and frankly, frightening picture painted by Andrejevic, I believe that his is reality while the others only the sunny side of life. The writers advocate the belief that the internet will be an aid to democracy and in fact, make democracy "more realistic" and bring the "we the people" back to the political process. The image of a newly re-vamped democracy that has active participation from informed citizens is amazing....in theory. But in reality my question would be, how would you transform a feeble democracy with uninterested, apathetic voters into some amazingly efficient super-democracy? The authors offer their views on the perfect combination of interactivity and democracy but not a feasible plan to implement.