Al Gore: "Name and shame the abuses by special interests"; "democracy has been hacked"; technology will not give us a magical solution but can make a huge difference

Dear Readers, This is a very good talk with Al Gore by Brian Merchant.  He discusses how our democracy has been hacked by special interests and how we need to use the internet to take it back.  How our civilization is absolutely under threat if we do nothing. (Readers of this blog are already aware of this, of course.)

http://www.vice.com/motherboard/al-gore-explains-why-civilization-might-not-survive-the-next-100-years

by Brian Merchant, Motherboard, September 2013

Al Gore is worried about the future. We've reached a point, he says, where the very survival of our civilization is at risk. But he's optimistic that we can turn things around, too. Motherboard sat down with the United States' most famous—and surely busiest—former vice president at this year's Social Good Summit, where we talked about two possible futures Gore sees confronting humanity. 

I asked him to describe the best and worst case scenarios for what civilization might look like 100 years from now. In one, Americans undertake an "Occupy democracy movement" to restore our political system, which Gore says has been "hacked" by money and special interests, and come together to fight climate change. In the other, the whole of human civilization lies in ruin.