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The Anarchives Volume 2 Issue 3
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--/\-- The Information Revolution
/ / \ \ Power & Oligarchy
---|--/----\--|--- McLuhan's Global Village
\/ \/
/\______/\ by Jesse Hirsh
"The extensions of human consciousness are projecting themselves
into the total world environment via electronics, forcing
humankind into a robotic future."1
The information revolution is here; transforming the globe; we
witness the information age. This is the second
industrial revolution; a change in the means of production;
accompanied by volatile frontier capitalism. Vast amounts of
wealth are being created and centralized as large information
based corporations explore and expand the electronic frontier.
The proliferation of information technology has and will
continue to have profound effects upon society, changing the
industrialized world into a fully integrated information economy.
The information revolution creates global information
institutions that harness all the effects and benefits of
globalization, and create the global corporate state. The
individuals in control of these institutions form a political
elite, whose strength grows as its numbers diminish. The iron
law of oligarchy continues as global organization yields global
rule, and a global elite. Among the ranks of this elite are the
owners of the technology, supported by subservient classes of a
corporate and technical elite. This essay examines these issues,
then begins to present options for resistance towards this
global power move.
Marshall McLuhan in The Global Village illustrates the
transformative and oligarchic natures of the emerging media. It
is in this work that McLuhan identifies the trend in
communications that he terms "Global Robotism". This term
describes a method of social organization that accompanies the
proliferation of electronic media such as computers, satellites,
global networks, and multi-way video communication. Humanity
extends itself into the electronic environment, lending itself
to electronic organization. We witness the emergence of a global
machine, a global computer that is alive with a developing
global consciousness, derived from the collective efforts of
millions of human participants. GAIA rises from the
industrialized world.
"As man succeeds in translating his central nervous system into
electronic circuitry, he stands on the threshold of outering his
consciousness into the computer."2
This essay also takes into consideration the work of C. Wright
Mills, and Robert Michels in order to understand the potential
role of the new power structure that emerges in the wake of the
information revolution. Their works are concerned with the roles
of elites in mass organization, they illustrate the present and
potential roles of an elite within the burgeoning information
age.
"As the institutional means of power and the means of
communications that tie them together have become steadily more
efficient, those now in command of them have come into command
of instruments of rule quite unsurpassed in the history of
mankind."3
The information revolution creates a new institution that
enhances existing ones, while creating a new and unique global
entity. The proliferation of computers and advanced
communication technology throughout society provide the medium
that is revolutionizing the means of production. Converging
media create the potential for a unified electronic environment
in which mass media are homogenized into a standardized mosaic
of human communication. Decentralization on the micro level
yields massive centralization on the macro scale. Multimedia and
interactive technologies become the central modes of
communication, and a new environment is created in which
everything is considered data; the user merges with the data
base as the system becomes so total that exclusion is a
technical impossibility. The earth reduces itself to binary code
to form an institution of global power.
"More and more people will enter the market of information
exchange, lose their private identities in the process, but
emerge with the ability to interact with any person on the face
of the globe. Mass, spontaneous electronic referendums will
sweep across continents. The concept of nationalism will fade
and regional governments will fall as the political implications
of spaceship earth create a world government."4
The people in control of this emerging global governance, wield
power unsurpassed by previous regimes or empires; the hegemony
of information power. The information media penetrates into our
lives, transforming us: the media is the message.
"There are no more passengers, only crew. Such a grasp of
totality suggests the possibility of control not only of the
planet but of change itself."5
The information revolution is a bourgeois corporate revolution,
of the highest magnitude. Enacted by large conglomerates, it is
fueled by their continued investment and research & development.
The corporate world benefits the most from the success of the
information revolution. This is true for the simple reason that
they own, operate, and create the revolution. Through its
enactment the corporate sector is experiencing its greatest
empowerment ever, gross profits at the highest levels and the
expansion of the corporate state.
This empowerment is accompanied by the emergence of a corporate
elite. An elite that integrates itself into the foundation, or
backbone of the information society. Their infiltration if not
creation of the emerging environment of human communication
places them at centre-ground; everywhere and yet seemingly
nowhere at all times.
"The multi-carrier media corporation has the peculiar ability to
be a media orchestrator, to link all video-related technologies,
whether satellite, earth station, microwave, date base, or
computer into a resonating whole."6
The two corporate giants, American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T)
and International Business Machines (IBM), are built upon information
technology, and through the information revolution are increasing their
global dominance. Through centralized government-military-industrial
spending and their own monopolistic practices they are among the largest
corporations in the world. Together they hold the copyrights and patents
on most of the technology of the past, present, and future.7 Now through
deregulation these American centred organizations are able to wield and
develop their power on a global scale. Their presence within the global
arena places them as competitors for global power.
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