I have to admit that after the first two days of NOI Bootcamp, I had my doubts. The turf-cutting tools and advice about phone banking and listserv management were useful, but I was asking myself (and others) - where exactly does the "new" in "new organizing" come in? Are we just learning how to use new tools to execute an old model more efficiently? If advances in technology have truly changed the way people communicate, shouldn't we be dealing with a new set of questions and assumptions about the relationship between people and politics? Does a generational divide exist between today's young people and those who were in our position just one or two election cycles ago?

As the week progressed and we talked more about online organizing, the new media ecosystem, coalitions and movement-building, I started to think that the week's agenda had been designed to foster the exact questions I had been asking. And as we listened to Marshall Ganz talk about social movements, discussed our role as organizers until the wee hours of the morning, and pressed trainers on questions of inclusiveness and purpose, hints of an answer started to emerge.

When Dr. Ganz said that we should be talking about values instead of issues, the trainees broke into spontaneous applause. Our group liked to clap, but this time it seemed to catch Dr. Ganz a bit off-guard. Young people wanting to talk about values? But it makes sense. Sites like Future Majority have documented a growing trend among Millennials toward increased civic engagement, religiosity, and political awareness. This could be an essay in itself, but perhaps the pendulum is swinging away from moral relativism and bank toward a more frank discussion about what we value and why. Maybe we can leverage this for victory in 2008. That's the plan, right?

In high school, a friend of mine said that the most fundamental question a person can ask themselves is: Am I going to try to save the world? The people whose "yes" answer can be taken practically for granted are a special breed - idealistic critics, passionate world-changers, visionaries. When people with such inclinations start talking, something amazing happens - a better world seems possible. I know that sounds like a bunch of sappy hippie bullshit, but it's true. And I'm starting to think we should just embrace it, sappiness and all.