You have to love this kid
You thought I was kidding about the Coca Cola
Didn’t you…
Malcolm Gladwell and the New Religion
Malcolm Gladwell has caused a stir with his article in the New Yorker about social media. Many of my friends have been talking about this, not least writer Charles Koppelman. I thought I’d post my thoughts as the email I sent him…
Charles: last night I was at the Frontline for an event called “TV journalism in the 21st century: The real golden age?” I was unsure if the ‘golden’ was a reference to the money being made or the quality of the coverage. The panelists were:
– Peter Horrocks, BBC director of global news
– Ben Cohen, Channel 4 News technology correspondent
– Greg Beitchman, global editor of the Reuters news agency
– Simon Bucks, associate editor at Sky News.
Chaired by Matt Wells, head of audio at the Guardian, and presenter of the Media Talk podcast.
Naturally a lot of time was spent talking about Britain’s ‘Berlusconi moment’ when/if Rupert Murdoch is allowed to buy Sky. But the other big issue was how broadcast news is dealing with twitter/fb/blogs etc. What makes me nervous is the kind of fizzy enthusiasm everywhere. The kind we usually associate with frat boys and hen parties. I’ve been around technology long enough to know that out there somewhere in the great unknown are unintended consequences.
Remember the Moon, how we were all on our way to space? How Atomic electricity would be so cheap it wouldn’t be worth monitoring? How thalidomide would transform women’s lives (it did alright)? How we would use our fantastically advanced technology to win the Iraq war in a few weeks; It’ll all be over by christmas? Young Ben Cohen was so overwhelmed with the glory of his tweeting job I thought he might fidget off the stage.
Whenever I hear the great crowd bellowing in the certainty of a new religion, little alarm bells go off in the back of my mind. I read the Gladwell article carefully. It seemed to me he was saying that the kinds of relationships that made the civil rights movement work are fundamentally different than the kind that people have on fb and twitter. Sociology is not my specialty, and he may be wrong, I don’t know.
What I am certain of is this: we are once again conducting an experiment on ourselves with no controls. We have a habit of doing this. Of course I use twitter and fb, but I’m old and my brain is also well attuned to reading books etc. How much do we know about the way the human brain develops with kids who don’t have any of that, and who’s family structure is not nearly as stable of most of ours were?
I’m a huge fan of Ray Kurzweil and I agree with him that we’re in a very rapidly accelerating technological environment, which along with all the good things, will inevitably bring accelerating unintended consequences.
My main concern with social media is that people assume that Google, Fb and Twitter are friendly corporations run by cool young people who are on ‘our’ side. What I know is that these companies have the largest databases of human behaviour ever constructed and I’m relying on their goodwill to use it wisely. I trust large corporations like I trust governments.
Living in the End Times
I know what you’re thinking: one too many evenings listening to aid worker’s or soldier’s or environmentalist’s dirges about the horror…the horror (whispered in a marlon brando voice), and he’s gone over the edge. Nick’s been overwhelmed and staggered off into Jesusland. But no, I have not come to that sorry pass, yet.
This is much worse. Living in the End Times is not a book hot of the presses in some Christian university madhouse in Florida. It is a startling new book by Slovenian Marxist philosopher and critical theorist Slavoj Žižek, who teaches at so many universities in so many countries he must live out of a suitcase.
I reproduce here the clip from his publisher, Verso:
‘Zizek analyzes the end of the world at the hands of the “four riders of the apocalypse.”’
There should no longer be any doubt: global capitalism is fast approaching its terminal crisis. Slavoj Zizek has identified the four horsemen of this coming apocalypse: the worldwide ecological crisis; imbalances within the economic system; the biogenetic revolution; and exploding social divisions and ruptures. But, he asks, if the end of capitalism seems to many like the end of the world, how is it possible for Western society to face up to the end times? In a major new analysis of our global situation, Slavok Zizek argues that our collective responses to economic Armageddon correspond to the stages of grief: ideological denial, explosions of anger and attempts at bargaining, followed by depression and withdrawal.
After passing through this zero-point, we can begin to perceive the crisis as a chance for a new beginning. Or, as Mao Zedong put it, “There is great disorder under heaven, the situation is excellent.” Slavoj Zizek shows the cultural and political forms of these stages of ideological avoidance and political protest, from New Age obscurantism to violent religious fundamentalism. Concluding with a compelling argument for the return of a Marxian critique of political economy, Zizek also divines the wellsprings of a potentially communist culture—from literary utopias like Kafka’s community of mice to the collective of freak outcasts in the TV series Heroes.”
We’ve come full political circle. When the Marxists are singing from the same hymn sheet as the Christians you know everyone is spooked. There’s a growing consensus among people who think beyond the next commercial break in X Factor that we’re not in a recession or a depression. We’re at something altogether different and given our species’ history of dealing with radical change, it’s reasonable to assume things will get bloody before they get better. Which comes about a decade late, but welcome to the party.
What’s worrying me more than the imminent collapse of our economy is that there is now a new kind of Super Duper Capitalist version gathering steam. I’m not sure, but it looks like the people who made a pile because of the inability of our economy to deal attractively with zero margin/scalable businesses, mostly internet, like Bill Gates, Meg Whitman et al, are now convinced that because they are geniuses (after all they must be) they should run the world. I was at a TEDX conference recently at London’s Science Museum, in which Mrs G, Melinda, told us over satellite link from New York that her model for defeating poverty worldwide was Coca Cola Inc. Said without a trace of irony. Coca Cola? Are you pulling my nipple ring? A company with a human rights record that makes the Chinese Communist Party look like your favourite auntie? Take a peek at Killercoke.org and tell me this is the model of our new Hyperdrive Capitalism – and I’ll believe you.
I’ve always given Polybius’ Anacyclosis some credence, but according to this new model we go from Oligarchy to Democracy and instead of going into Ochlocracy, we go into Oligarchy II. Given the tremendous gini coefficient numbers, maybe we’ll have a kind of combined super elite, bio enhanced oligarchy living in heavily guarded enclaves, with Mob rule on the outside. Oh, that’s London now. Silly me.
For real dark side entertainment, catch Slavoj Žižek on YouTube. Killer.
Oh, I found Living in the End Times on YT.
New Yorker Festival: Video: Malcolm Gladwell on Income Inequality : The New Yorker
Malcolm making the point we have all been trying to make. Finally.
The Future of the US Empire
I spent last night at the Frontline seeing “Collapse” the film by Mike Ruppert. It looks like we’re seeing the beginning of the next stage. Time to move to Hong Kong…
Capitalism Hits the Fan
Dear Ones: I know some people think I’m an eco collapse Dmitry Orlov freak. I don’t take offense. This is Richard Wolff on ForaTV. And you thought I was scary…?
Matt Simmons
I have just received an email from Judy Gristwood at Ocean Energy Insitute to say that Matt Simmons passed away suddenly on Sunday. Matt was an extraordinary man, and will be remembered as one of those who tried to alert the world to the imminent dangers of oil and gas depletion and its effects on our way of life. Thank you Matt and Godspeed.
Oil Threatens Marine Life – ABC News
I’ve just met Dr. Guggenheim on Twitter. As we suspected the amount of Methane in the spill was being underestimated. It remains to be seen how the gulf will eventually cope with this level of Methane contamination.
If you’re interested in a great source for Ocean information go to 1-Planet 1-Ocean.
Oil Threatens Marine Life – ABC News, posted with vodpod
Matt Simmons on Bloomberg
I was talking about the Matt Simmons story in BP and the Giant Blender. This is his Bloomberg interview.
leave a comment