Frankly inspiring: Patti Smith takes a few column inches on today's Times opinion page to reflect, in economical prose, on the strangeness of a rock and roll rebel receiving the field's ultimate laurel: induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "Should an artist working within the revolutionary landscape of rock accept laurels from an institution?"

With her clear eye and voice, Smith de facto cuts through the recent handwringing over the fate of an old punk rock club by looking to the transformative potential new outlets and networks hold across the cultural and political landscape.* She'll accept tonight's honor in the name of her late husband Fred Sonic Smith, she says, because "I am none but him: one who has loved rock ’n’ roll and crawled from the ranks to the stage, to salute history and plant seeds for the erratic magic landscape of the new guard."

Because its members will be the guardians of our cultural voice. The Internet is their CBGB. Their territory is global. They will dictate how they want to create and disseminate their work. They will, in time, make breathless changes in our political process. They have the technology to unite and create a new party, to be vigilant in their choice of candidates, unfettered by corporate pressure. Their potential power to form and reform is unprecedented.

Human history abounds with idealistic movements that rise, then fall in disarray. The children of light. The journey to the East. The summer of love. The season of grunge. But just as we seem to repeat our follies, we also abide.

* Sometimes referred to at Worldchanging as the second superpower.