W On Newsstands Now Issue 5.04 | Apr 1997  Page 5 of 8 previous
| start | next Printing? Use this version  Birth of a Digital
Nation (continued) By Jon Katz  Although these ideas work well
for them now, as the postpolitical young of the digital world
grow older, they will confront a new range of problems, from
developing careers to raising children to preparing for old age.
Their ideology will, of necessity, develop and change.  As they
raise children, they will face issues such as neighborhood
safety, maintaining parks, and improving the educational system.
As they buy homes, they will encounter bread-and-butter
political issues like taxation and zoning. Faced with developing
a new political agenda in a radically different world, they will
inevitably find themselves face-to-face with the ghosts of the
old one.  A new form of libertarianism  The closest thing the
digital world has to dogma is its ingrained libertarianism, its
wholehearted commitment to political and economic freedom, its
fierce opposition to