The main contradiction in a networked information technology era is between the possibility of free, abundant goods and information and a system of monopolies, banks and governments trying to keep things private, scarce and commercial.
We live in a capitalistic society, one that in its first cycles offered the most prosperous period in the history of humankind. However, this system, during the last two decades, has been wearing off, it now has existential faults in its design. While decaying, it remains increasingly controlled by an elite that lives off of high finance, low wages, secrecy, militarism, and monopolized intellectual property. More than an opportunity system, it has become a hierarchical system that is no longer compatible with a networked information technology society or at least with big parts of it.
The social unrest and political turmoil we live today is substantially explained by the struggle between the network and the hierarchy, between old forms of society moulded around traditional markets and new forms of society based on globally connected information networks that operate with non-market value and an unprecedented free flow of information.
The current elite holds stubbornly to their convenient hierarchical set up, and is not welcoming nor accepting of the societal changes that have emerged from a networked and ever informed society. Their empire is at risk. It’s worrying to think what they will do out of desperation while controlingl nearly every government in the world. But hope remains, the fact is that in most countries this elite enjoys very little consent or popularity among ordinary people.
It is the elite, cut off in their separate world, who refuse to acknowledge the system requires a hard reset to align with society. The democracy of riot squads, corrupt politicians, manipulative big pharma, magnate-controlled newspapers and the surveillance state look as phony and fragile as East Germany did thirty five years ago.
The system reset is long due but imminent. How the transition will happen and if we will be wise and mature enough as a society to live through it with peace is still a mystery.