The Right To Be Heard--Facebook As A Tipping Point

Anyone within hailing distance of a newspaper or TV has heard about the imminent underwriting that will make Facebook a public company.  Much as been said about the wealth of Mark Zuckerberg, the people who invested in his company and the cadre of Facebook managers who are poised to purchase expensive cars.  We have also heard that much of the Arab spring was rooted in social media such as Facebook.  Facebook has been excoriated for violating privacy rights.  What is undeniable, though, is the sheer scope of its reach:  soon to be one billion persons all over the world.

In a recent CBC radio program, Sparks, the social and political impact of Facebook and the Internet as a whole was thoughtfully examined.  Facebook, it was said, had the same impact of socializing people in the same way that the printing press gave access to information heretofore dominated by the elite classes.  The ability of a large number of ordinary people to communicate with one another, easily, will change the world. All of this is well known and predictable.  What was different about this discussion were the following points.

• Most social upheaval is a bottom up process.  From the Magna Carta through to the French and Russian revolutions through to the Arab spring, the impetus for social change was not "granted from above" but rather demanded from below--from relatively ordinary people (notwithstanding that the Magna Carta was promulgated by the earls and barons).  
• Strong leaders depend on the relative inability of the rank and file to communicate with one another.  They are top down leaders.  While all this goes well when strong leaders are also good leaders, it does not go so well when strong leaders are poor leaders.  Strong leaders tend not to listen to the rank and file:  being strong and self indulgent they believe that they know better.
• Social upheaval depends on the rank and file having access to information and being able to meet to formulate plans for change.  Sometimes this information is disseminated through pamphlets, sometimes through underground radio but, recently, through social media.
• Social change depends on perceived entitlement of the rank and file.  This entitlement is wide ranging and, if wide ranging enough, leads to significant social change.  The Internet and social media such as Facebook grant this entitlement.

The discussion then turned to the current leaders in the United States.  Both President and Obama and the Republican contenders point to themselves as strong leaders.  This appears to be exactly what the rank and file do not need.  Strong leaders got the United States into the mess that it's in.  What the rank and file want to hear is the political leaders will be collaborative.  We have a classic confrontation between the the rank and file and the political leadership.  The Republicans are hidebound in that they will not entertain higher taxes and more spending.  The Democrats are hidebound in that they will entertain higher taxes in order to preserve the social safety that citizens are entitled to expect.  The two solitudes are unable to have any meaningful discourse.  And so there is a political stalemate that is not going to get better in the near term.  Unless one of the parties can carry the presidency, the house and the senate, the negotiation need to pass meaningful legislation will lead nowhere.  The rank and file can't understand why this is happening.  After all, the country is in a mess and it appears relatively easy to identify where the mess is and what to do about it.  They are not doctrinaire about this.  The fact that legislators couldn't pass a jobs bill is criminal.  The fact that banks are still foreclosing on mortgagors because only by foreclosing can they collect from 

Fanny Mae is equally criminal.  Aside from the political rallies of the faithful there is no real dialogue going on between the leaders and the rank and file.  This is, potentially, dangerous. While the "Occupy" movement was poorly organized and directed, the next group will be better organized and better directed.  Look out.  

Bernie.