Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. Benjamin Franklin

Thursday, January 15, 2015

The End of Power by Moises Naím review – a study in mass alienation

Made popular by Mark Zuckerberg, this is a subtle and persuasive account of the way societies are becoming both more restrained and more anarchic  Facebook founder’s book club choice sends sales rocketing

Lili Loofbourow

The Guardian - Thursday 15 January 2015

It’s easy to see why Mark Zuckerberg likes Moisés Naím’s The End of Power. Naím’s thesis is that “in the 21st century, power is easier to get, harder to use – and easier to lose.” Zuckerberg’s understands this (as shown by his strategic acquisitions of potential competitors WhatsApp and Instagram) and grasps that Facebook’s success depends on bridging the gap between old corporate and new grassroots models of power. Facebook is constantly balancing the need for user control – or the appearance of it – and a careful, authoritarian, behind-the-scenes structuring of user experience in ways that benefit the company.
In this sense, Facebook is the perfect test case for Naím’s book. The End of Power lucidly describes and extols the extent to which recent developments have made traditional repositories of power – whether political, corporate, or cultural – newly vulnerable to challenges from smaller, nimbler entities. He warns, however, that the imminent death of the superpower as a structuring global authority is producing less stability than ever before. He suggests that a model where smaller actors have power to veto but not dictate – destroy but not create – is a recipe for gridlock, anarchy, or both.

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