Ensuring Competition: Who's the New Teddy Roosevelt of the Web?

I like the analogy to TR, but won't hold my breath for a modern-day "trust buster". We seem to be living in more of a Gilded Age than a Progressive Era. Just my two cents.

There is much to worry about here - Rupert Murdoch is certainly no fan of the free and honest exchange of ideas. But I'm not sure 'TR' is out there right now, and I think Moose is right - we're still in the 'Gilded Age' phase.

But there is also room for hope. Much of the content on the net is non-commercial. Ordinary people just make elaborate stuff and post it with no expectation of any return except maybe a pat on the back. Just maybe these ordinary people will make use of the organizing power of the net to slow down the attempts by powerful business interests to turn it into just another TV wasteland. Maybe well find a 'virtual TR'.

If history is any guide, people will eventually figure out that their interests don't coincide with the interests of big business, will stop filling our legislatures with stooges, and begin electing progressive types. But in the meantime, Angelina Jolie will be starring in the film version of Ayn Rand's smutty little novel 'Atlas Shrugged', and we'll have at least one more wave of greed heads to wade through.