Inspired by the following RSA presentation I have begun a new train of thought
this morning. But before I introduce what could become a lengthy
introduction I will let you get acquainted with the material
yourself.
What I
gather from this talk is that Jeremy Rifkin believes that a 3rd
industrial revolution could be on its way. Obviously this is
interesting by itself, with all the perspectives on peak oil and what
not, but what I find to be even more intriguing is that this
perspective that power and management thus far has been vertical –
top-down. And as is introduced the internet has more than proved that
people are ready for a more horizontally oriented approach. Powerful
search engines have made the lack of available information a thing of
the past, and this could be interpreted as a sign that people are
adjusting to having more influence.
As opposed
to Mr. Rifken I see a wealth of possible conflicts with this emerging
social paradigm of equality. A horizontally governed direct
democracy, as it would be, would feature less individually oriented
authority. This would make politics obsolete in a relatively short
period of time, and that would be perfectly fine, if it was not for
the fact that the powers that be will know this in advance of the
majority, and they will try, as they have with the Occupy movement
and similar groups, to turn public orientation towards an illusion
that they and they alone embody democracy. Because if they do it
would become obvious how counterproductive it is to diminish the
institutions concerned with politics and law making.
The proof
of the above claim? Look at how the media handles the rising
discontent with governing institutions. They are attempting to shadow
the reality of how big a portion of the globe is currently interested
in making changes. While all of them do not share a unified goal for
whatever change they seek, they agree on the fact that something must
be done. Humans are now on a collision course with reality, as we
begin to understand that razing forest after forest to compete in
this global game of monopoly is unrealistic.
In closing
it should be noted that the reason that we are simultaneously aware
of this abyss and still moving towards it, is exactly the vertical
governing installation of representative democracy. This makes for a
dissonance between what we know and how fast we can make changes
accordingly because every discovery in science and later in public
understanding has to go through the process of persuading political
figures and market shaping forces before it can be integrated
properly.
Because we
are a top-down species at this point, we are limited from responding
optimally to emerging social problems.
