Thursday, December 14, 2017

Information Age

Within the next hundred years I expect movement from win/lose toward more win/win type decision-making processes in government. Democracy of course is a win/lose method. One candidate wins one loses.
A market mechanism is one example where everyone leaves with smile on their face. But there are other ways too. Check out Doyle and Strauss how to make your meetings work. This book really brought that fact home and changed the paradigm for me.
Nomadic Hunter Gatherers – Agricultural - Industrial
First people were nomadic hunter-gatherers, and then an agricultural revolution helped them settle down into farms. The industrial revolution brought a mass migration from country to city.
Information Revolution, Political Change
Agriculture brought with it Monarchy. The industrial revolution brought Democracy. What changes
Tocqueville
in the political structure will the information revolution bring?
Tocqueville, Progress, Democracy, and Equality
Tocqueville in his book "Democracy in America," talked about how freedom is inevitable, Tocqueville traced the history of France from the early middle ages when coercion existed as the sole mechanism of authority and concluded that every notable development during the interval had benefited equality.
Tocqueville inspected every generation since the middle ages in France and saw a dual revolution. The aristocracy falling within society while the lower groups rose. He felt cities had added a component of freedom to feudalism, publishing spreading equal information to all groups and America providing many fresh roads to wealth.
Tocqueville believed all persons had helped Democracy, some unknowingly some willingly. Tocqueville is describing the industrial revolution. His notion is that at that time everything had been progressing toward democracy and equality. I agree with him.  One of the great western ideas is the notion of progress, how history has progressed.
I have just finished the Rational Optimist and Ridley makes a good case. But has he really said anything new? Interesting to think of how Marx, Tocqueville, Toffler and Ridley all look at this issue. But more about Ridley later.

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