October 13th, 2007
What popularity of Ron Paul and Chris Hitchens videos tells me about the Internet-and maybe you as well
Google Blogscoped’s Philipp Lenssen reports that recently, the most viewed video in the Candidates @Google site was that of Ron Paul, the libertarian-leaning Republican.
Quick check: As of this posting, Rep. Paul has 293, 801 views, followed by Sen. John McCain with 19,170. Keep in mind that former NYC Mayor Rudy Guliani nor either Sens. Clinton or Obama have sat for an interview yet.
But then, here’s something just as interesting. He notes that the second-most-watched video on @GoogleTalks (of which Candidates@Google is integrated with), is that of controversial pundit Christopher Hitchens.
An avowed atheist whose latest book is entitled “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything,” Hitchens interview had 61,148 views at the time of this posting.
I don’t think these ranking occur in a indicator-less vacuum.
Ron Paul doesn’t believe in “big government.”
Christopher Hitchens doesn’t believe in a supreme being.
Now let us put these facts together and analyze them in the context of the popularity of the Google interviews of both of these men.
Could it be that among some (OK, I need to say it again…SOME) Internet users, there is something in their personalities that resists the notion of higher authority?
Or perhaps it is a propensity toward believing that technology and science can solve problems that “Big Government,” religion, and even a Deity cannot?
Or both?
And that such folks with such beliefs tend to be more proportionately represented among the communities of heavy Internet users than in the general population?
Awaiting your comments, I fall back on these lines from “Tom Sawyer.” Not the book but the classic metal song by Rush:
“You know his mind is not for rent”
“To any god or government…”
And keep in mind the lyrics also strongly implied this “today’s Tom Sawyer” not only held these attitudes, but also embraced technology by playing “Space Invaders.”
Loading ...Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
