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the cluetrain manifesto - chapter two - the longing

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the following is the complete second chapter of

The Cluetrain Manifesto:
The End of Business as Usual

Copyright © 1999, 2001

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order from Amazon

chapter two

the following is the complete second chapter of >

The Cluetrain Manifesto: >
The End of Business as Usual >

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The Longing
David Weinberger


What Is the Web For?

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This fervid desire for the Web bespeaks a longing so intense that it can only be understood as spiritual. A longing indicates that something is missing in our lives. What is missing is the sound of the human voice. >

The spiritual lure of the Web is the promise of the return of voice.

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How to Hate Your Job

A managed environment requires behavior from us that we accept as inevitable although, of course, it is really mandatory only because it is mandated. We call it "professionalism."

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And yet... we feel resentment. Find someone who likes being managed, who feels fully at home in his or her professional self. Our longing for the Web is rooted in the deep resentment we feel towards being managed. >

However much we long for the Web is how much we hate our job.

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We are all victims of this assault on voice, the attempt to get us to shut up and listen to the narrowest range of ideas imaginable.

It is only the force of our regret at having lived in this bargain that explains the power of our longing for the Web.

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The Longing

We don’t know what the Web is for but we’ve adopted it faster than any technology since fire.

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There are many ways to look at what’s drawing us to the Web: access to information, connection to other people, entrance to communities, the ability to broadcast ideas. None of these are wrong perspectives. But they all come back to the promise of voice and thus of authentic self.

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Since you could just as adequately view the Web as a huge reference library, why did home pages seize our imaginations? Because a home page is a place in which we can express who we are and let the world in. Meager though it may be, a home page is a way of having a voice.

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It is the granting of a place in which we can be who we are (and even who we aren’t, if that’s the voice we’ve chosen).

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It is a public place. That is crucial. Having a voice doesn’t mean being able to sing in the shower. It means presenting oneself to others. The Web provides a place like we’ve never seen before.

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The memo is dead. Long live e-mail.

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Long live customer-support reps who are willing to get as pissed off at their own company as the angry customer is.

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And when the thrill of hearing ourselves speak again wears off, we will begin to build a new world.

That is what the Web is for.

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