Quote Originally Posted by marct View Post
This may just be another case of us saying the same, or similar, things with different languages . I'm just not sure when it will happen or if it will happen. The historical analogs were all predicated on low speed communications and fairly low technology, both of which make a major difference.
Marc,
I don't doubt that we are experiencing one of those instances of "two people divided by a common language."
I believe that speed of communications and level of technology will impact primarily by shortening the pendulum's period of oscillation. In other words, the swings between aggregation of power and disaggregation of power will occur more rapidly, hence more social turbulence will arise. Technological advances allow people to see much more rapidly that they are not alone in their dissatisfaction with the status quo, which makes them more likely to band together to change (the "madness of crowds" phenomenon or what was called a "right on" movement in the '60s). Technology does not, however, provide us with a silver bullet to get past the emotional (and therefore not rationally considered) knee jerk solutions that the dissatisfaction will engender. Of course, I am viewing this as a Westerner, with typical Western lack of patience.