Jon Meacham: “Thomas Jefferson: the Art of Power” | Talks at Google

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Is there some place where digital democracy can
contribute to the good as opposed to what I think it
tends to do now, which is reinforce preexisting biases.

I’m speaking in vastly oversimplified terms.
But one of the things that the digital revolution has made
You can make yourself heard anyway, whether it’s in
comment sections, or Twitter, or Facebook, whatever it is.
Every man is a pundit now.
And that’s great.
But with power comes responsibility.
And so as FDR once said, simply screaming from the
rooftops doesn’t help us a whole lot.
So is there a way to harness this amazing tool to create,
what one would argue, could be a more
constructive political dialogue?

I would hope so.
And I think we’re not even halfway through this, right?
These are the first moments of this.

And so I think you all–
I don’t mean to preach at you– but you all have a hell
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of a responsibility here.
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I mean, this is Google.
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Some guy last night in Seattle asked me where he could find a
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particular letter of Jefferson’s, and I thought he
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meant the idea.
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No, he meant the letter, the actual one he’d written.
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And so I said, well, I don’t have the date off
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the top of my head.
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He said, well, do I have to Google it?
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I said, well, if you have to ask, then yes you do.
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That’s a key thing.
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So you’re a verb.
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So you’re one of the key cultural landmarks of the age.
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So I think that there’s an enormous responsibility there
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to try to figure out how do you use this immense sea?
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How do you channel it into productive ways?
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So I should be asking you all this, is my point.