Post we’ve started a new feature that we are calling the Greatest Person of the Day. We are spotlighting people who are doing things in their communities. We put them on the front page and we put the spotlight on them. Then we started an interactive map where we put all the good things that we find and we put a star on the map of America wherever good things are happening. That is not to minimize the bad things that are happening; we are not a good-news site. But our point is to try to do whatever we can do while we are putting the spotlight on the dysfunctionalities and the need for government to take the right actions, to encourage people to be doing what we can, without just waiting by the sidelines. Democracy is not a spectator sport. I think it’s very important that we elevate volunteerism and service to something major. That it’s not just noblesse oblige and a thousand points of light and all those things that people do around Thanksgiving when we go serve meals in homeless shelters. It’s something that can be filled with creativity and can really turn the country around, not just by putting together these individual acts and scaling them up, but by also tapping into our own compassion – which we make much harder with what happened today
when unemployment benefits were not reauthorized. Now we are basically rewarding a fundamental kind of meanness. So if we can turn that around at the individual and community level, I think it’s going to have a huge impact at the political level as well. PATEL: What I worry about is that, in the state [excusing] itself of responsibility, [it] is generating this meanness you’re talking about. One of the problems is that it destroys the idea of a collective self and makes it all about communities and individuals. HUFFINGTON: I don’t think its either-or; this could be the real convergence. When we talk about bipartisanship, for me the true bipartisanship is not about splitting the difference; it’s about finding where we can converge. Liberals need to recognize that their responsibility does not stop when they ask for government to do something. The delegating of compassion is not enough either. It’s not enough to say, “Let’s spend more on this and more on that and I’m just going to watch you do it.” In the same way, conservatives cannot say, “We’re just going to cut everything and let the private sector take care of it – maybe it will or it won’t, but we’ll just see what happens.” Neither of these positions make sense.
But the opposite, which is for liberals and conservatives to agree that – whether out of compassion or out of the sense that the private sector is responsible for taking care of those in need, whatever your starting point is – you can converge around the fact that we all need to do more. That, for me, is the true synergy that we can achieve. PATEL: You talk about one of the major impediments to actually getting the government to listen to ordinary American citizens on the Left or the Right, and that’s the influence of big money in Washington. How can we reverse that trend? HUFFINGTON: The media reflexively look at every issue as Left-vs.-Right. But in fact if you look at the issues of our time, you can’t divide them as Left vs. Right. Like Afghanistan: You have major conservatives basically opposing what’s happening in Afghanistan, yet the media keeps calling it: The Left wants to leave Afghanistan. You could have 3,000 conservative intellectuals wanting to leave Afghanistan and the media would call it the Left. The problem with that is that immediately it marginalizes the position as just these extremists, instead of looking at it on its own terms. In the same way, look at Wall Street. I (Continued on page 50)
Shopping Anew: The Online Revolution Continues While high unemployment has left traditional commercial markets in a slump, new realms of ecommerce are blossoming. Web sites are capitalizing on consumers’ growing desires for more meaningful types of exchange. On ecommerce site Etsy.com, individual craft makers can open up an online shop to sell their jewelry, woodwork, fashion, glassware and other products. Buyers looking for unique and personal gifts can browse through the one-of-a-kind items and read the bios of craft makers from more than 150 countries. Etsy provides not only a market, but also a network for craft makers. Sellers on Etsy can attend virtual labs, where they can come together to exchange ideas and advice. For many sellers, Etsy has become their livelihood. So why in these tough economic times are people shopping on Etsy instead of heading to the blowout sales at the mall? “In the economic downturn, when money is scarcer, this idea of what value is is a lot more than the dollar cost of something; value [becomes] something where items have stories in them, or the meaning behind who gave them to you or who made it,” said Etsy founder Robert Kalin in a YouTube video. Innovative ecommerce is not limited to goods exchange. San Francisco-based Skyara.com is a site for people who want to share their unique talents with others.
“We built Skyara with the concept that everyone has something interesting to share, whether it’s a fun hobby, job or a skill that other people would be interested to learn,” founder Jonathan Wu told the Los Angeles Times. “Most people offering experiences are not doing it for the money. They are doing it to share their hobbies and have some fun and meet new people.” People in the Bay Area are selling experiences from mountain biking tours to a 30-minute lunch discussing time travel to marksmanship training to web site design lessons. Another San Francisco-based site, Airbnb.com, is “a community marketplace for unique spaces.” Spaces range from small guest rooms to elaborate beachfront properties for rent in more than 8,000 cities. Wary travelers can look at reviews of both guests and hosts to assess whether they are a good fit. Staying with a host who has local knowledge often provides travelers with an insider look at their destination. Often, a visit grows into a friendship between the host and the guests, something you can’t get from the Holiday Inn. Buyer Beware: Worried someone won’t hold up their end of the wire? Check reviews and ratings: These sites have reviews posted for individual buyers and sellers, so you won’t feel like you’re going into a deal blind. Ω. Written by Sally Schilling.
feb r ua ry/mar ch 2011
THE COMMO N WE AL TH
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