Tensegrities

Eric links to Clay Shirky’s quick video on the notion of “cognitive surplus.” Definitely worth watching — and a great argument for a “consume, produce, share” culture.

“…every place where a user, or a reader, or a listener, or a viewer has been locked out. Has been served up a passive or a fixed or a canned experience. If we carved out a little bit of the cognitive surplus we now recognize we can deploy, could we make a good thing happen?”

Let’s ask this question in terms of faith communities!

An evangelical manifesto has just been released. It’s a rather remarkable statement, and I will be very curious to see how it’s received. When the Vatican releases documents, Roman Catholics worldwide are mandated to take them seriously and study them, regardless of whether they eventually assent to or dissent from, the teaching. But that is NOT the practice in the Protestant and Reform contexts, let alone the evangelical. So I can’t wait to see what, if anything, comes from this.

Update: Kelly Fryer has a good analysis of it, and don’t forget to notice how VERY FEW women have signed on (at least so far).

The situation is dire, and the politics are complicated. Is it even possible imagine 100,000 people dead? But we can at least urge our various media to pay attention, and we can send them to sites that will give them a place to start — like the Democratic Voice of Burma page, or the campaign for Human Rights and Democracy in Burma. And as always, PRAY.