Six Degrees of Separation: What Wisconsin, Egypt and Libya Mean to You
By Alex Hammer
What is going on in the world? And why are we following it every day?
It seems as if the world is waking up and moving from observer to participant (or at a minimum to participant observer). Is it because a critical mass of people are now using social media tools so as to feel empowered, and emboldened? Or is it because autocratic tendencies, at home and abroad, have pushed people into political crisis mode?
All Politics is Local (I Mean Global)
As comedian Steven Wright notes “It’s a small world, but I wouldn’t want to paint it”. The 24-7 news cycle and news and friend networks across Twitter, Facebook and the like allow us to seek out the information, general or niche, in which we are most interested. But it also adds complexity to our world. Six degrees of separation now applies to global politics as much as it does other realms. We’re all just a few mouse clicks or network connections away from each other, and that makes our respective needs and struggles more shared and intertwined.
Wisconsin is our struggle whatever state we live in (and whatever our positions may be).
But so is Egypt and Libya.
We’re interested because just like “the wave” at a sporting event, developments in one part of the world are impacting those in another with greater intensity.
And speed.
The Future is Now
According to the notion of accelerating returns, it is not only information that is increasing but also the rate of information as well. This is the exponential rather than linear growth model that ties events in the world together in an an increasingly seamless manner. In some sense there is less us and them, and more us. But in a parallel process, differences are also highlighted. We can’t get to synthesis until thesis and antithesis have had their rounds
Complexity and Integration
Just as Moore’s law indicates that computer chips will become more complex, at the same time they also become less expensive (per unit of computing power). One can now have a more robust network online than one could previously have, for example, by long distance phone calls. And of course much cheaper too.
TIME magazine (I believe) has already previously named you and I as the Person of the Year.
The world, as they say, is a-changing.
You better hold on.
Alex Hammer has run for Governor of Maine as an independent. He can be reached at [email protected] or @aihammer on Twitter.