Niall Ferguson: The Global Network Has Become Dangerously Unstable

Niall Ferguson has some food for thought:

“The world today is like a giant network on the verge of a cataclysmic outage. …

You cannot understand the world today without understanding how it has changed as a result of new information technology. This has become a truism. The question is, how has it changed? The answer is that technology has enormously empowered networks of all kinds relative to traditional hierarchical power structures. …

The reality is that the global network has become a dangerously unstable structure. Far from promoting equality, the network does the opposite, by allowing hyperconnected “superhubs” to emerge. Surprise, surprise, from Donald Trump to PewDiePie, these turn out to be rather the reverse of saintly role models.

Far from spreading truth and love, the network excels at disseminating lies and hate, because those are the things we nasty, fallen human beings like to click on. …”

I’ve been thinking along the same lines.

We need to act locally, but think globally. I can sit here in the middle of nowhere in rural Alabama and poison discourse in, say, Sweden at 1:00 AM in the morning. I can connect with likeminded people on social media all over the world and gang up with them to assault the Narrative. We have all the tools we need to delegitimize the fake news Lügenpresse and challenge the liberal establishment.

Note: I like this video. I think of it as a visualization of what is possible. The little bomb here represents discourse poisoning and the Romulans are the liberal politicians and the mainstream journalists who have lost their legitimacy in the eyes of the public. You are FAKE NEWS!