Re:Why Technology Favors Tyranny
by marcosdumay on Tuesday September 04, 2018 @10:47AM
(#17909401)
Hammers favors the kinds of architectures that one can create with nails.
Every technology have some inherent biases. Electricity favored decentralization about as much as steam power favored concentration.
The way we use our technology is a reflection of our ideas. Since the 1990s I've watched the ideas that are popular within the culture shift in an increasingly authoritarian direction on both the "right" and "left" of the conventional political spectrum. We are seeing the ascent of strong man rule and other types of authoritarianism around the world for democratic reasons: it's what people want, or what people think we need.
I think the largest single factor is push-back against globalization. Personally I think globalization in some form and to some degree is both desirable (to prevent war and increase wealth) and inevitable (due to travel and communication), but I also think it's been pushed perhaps a little too quickly and in ways that are profoundly insensitive to the needs of the middle classes in the developed world. That's created a massive anti-globalization backlash where people are elevating strongmen and demagogues to re-assert national borders and national independence.
There are other factors too. I think a similar kind of reaction is occurring against global social liberalization.