Recently I've been reading three books that hover around similar topics. They are John Pilger's The New Rulers of the World, Malcolm Gladwells's The Tipping Point and Stewart Brand's The Clock of the Long Now. They can all be construed to be about time and resistance to change. Pilger discusses expediency and attempts to maintain the lifestyle of one group of people at huge expense to another. Gladwell creates a world in which three types of people can be used to create epidemics of information. These epidemics can be used to distribute information or sell products, the rely on context and certain types of behaviours.
Stewart Brand discuss the friction between the different layers of civilization and what happens when on layer tries to make a lower layer move faster than it can. The main premise of the book is that our concept of time is too now, we need to link longer term. He initially proposes a 200 year span, covering 7 generations, but then expands this to 10,000 years, as he want to inspire a radical change in thinking about responsibility. 10,000 years ago we we just starting to grow crops, and have radically changed the world since then. The speed of modern life gets faster yearly, changes sweep through on a faster pace each time. CDs took years to establish themselves, DVDs took a year if that. The very epidemics that Gladwell talks about can now happen faster, yet some of his concerns touch on those of Brand.
Pilgers world feel different and darker, yet underneath it is the struggles of the western countries trying to maintain their world order against an almost daily cycle of change. The means to put a hold on the changes in world order are often not pleasant, but political and commercial expediency seem to force the hand of the politicians and business men into thinking short each time. The next election, the quarterly report, tomorrows FT are the reckoners. There seems to be no opportunity to think longer term. I hope that we can work out a way to solve this, as the world depicted is not a good one and may get worse.
More notes on each book follow...
There is a a good summary of the basic facts of The Tipping Point from HappyFeet. This covers the facts, but misses out a lot on the style of the book, which I feel is very well written. It gradually builds coherent picture of the actors and environments in which epidemic change can happy. It is very well researched and examples are used to highlight the text effectively. Each example is clearly explained and the later in the book Gladwell starts to cross reference his examples and tie together the themes. He also is aware that the neat model of three types of people is to clean and that people don't easily fit into one bucket. It is a really good book at explaining some basic epidemiology, psychology, sociology and some marketing and economics. At the end of the book you can start to identify the use of the principles of it in politics and business. The whole premise that small changes through a few people can make large changes rings true. If you work with people or change, then it is a very useful read.
I've only recently started the The Clock of the Long Now, but have seen Stewart Brand present on this material, at CSCW2002. It is fascinating read on how society and systems change. It discusses the concept of the moores law inspired singluarity and this will change some areas of life, but it shows this in contrast to the six layers of civilization which give stability. The six layers are shown in this diagram, they are Fashion; Commerce; Infrastructure; Governence; Culture; and Nature. Progress is slower and memory better the lower you go; progress is fast and learning quick higher up. There is more of the aims and projects of the Long Now Foundation at their website.
I've ordered a second hand copy of his earlier book, How Buildings Learn, which is sadly out of print. It expands on the idea of slow system change.
The John Pilger is quite a depressing read, a million people die in the first 40 odd pages and several million by the end. He builds up a well referenced and thorough argument that American policy since WW2 has largely been at the expense of smaller less powerful countries. He outlines the US involvement in Indonesia, where they destabalized the possible communist regime and hundreds of thousands of people died as a result. The country went from zero debt to $282 billion and most of its assets owned externally, with until recently a very oppressive regime.
He then covers the background to the Iraq war and how Saddam was the West's friend against the possible scourge of Iran, then he invaded Kuwait and fell from favour. He covers in detail the effect the sanctions have had on the people of Iraq, citing the many time that the US on the security council has blocked all types of medical or minor spare part to Iraq on the grounds that it could be of dual use. Some of these seem quite weak justifications at times, like food supplies or painkillers. He also discussed the ue of depleted uranium and how Kuwait had millions spent on cleanup operations, yet Iraq had the parts blocked so that it could even test for the presence. The use of cluster bombs and the continued misery that they are causing in Iraq, before the most recent war, over 70,000 were dropped. In 18 months to January 2000 24,000 combat missions were flown to the no fly zones, in 1999 1800 bombs were dropped on 450 targets at a cost of £800 million. Saddam was not a fair or just leader, but this smacks of the "back to the stone age" quote about Afghanistan.
Next he addresses the use of American and European power to destabalise other countries (Indonesian, Chile, Iraq, El Salvador and other central american countries). This destabalisation is often to save them from communism, then a western approved regime is appointed and often the civil rights of the citizens are much worse. He shows how US companies benefit from the conditions that organisations like the IMF and World Bank impose on developing countries, often over natural resources or water or basic food products. These are often a one way deal, so that the developing country cannot meet the conditions. Thus the assets flow into the hands of the large corporations. He makes the point that it is not that corporations are bad. Their expectation that commerce is always the right way and cheapest, fastest strongest wins, means that the livelihoods and rights of the people are ignored. This extends to the culture of the nations, if it is not western style democracy then there is something wrong and it will be changed. The security council of the UN is led by veto and if America doesn't approve then nothing happens, which doesn't seem very democratic. There is a lot more about the CIA; about the sale of military hardware to regimes that abuse human rights; frightening quotes from Richard Perle and Madeline Albright, showing that they don't think everyone has the same rights, they are unpeople; about the gas and oil industry and why the Caspian oils fields are important.
The last chapter is about the plight of the Aborigines and the widespread abuse of their rights over the last 200 years. Several things come out of this, the denial of conflict with the native people; the lack of acceptance of their claims on the land; and the vested interests that combined with the right wing government to weaken already weak land deals in the 90s. All of this is against a background of poor healthcare, lack of employment oppurtunities and marginalization, which lead to a high suicide rate, 40 is old. Australia is the only western country not to accept the claim of the native people on their land, the media and government encourage a feeling that all is well and nothing is a problem. This was especially apparent at the Sydney Olympics were the Aboriginal problem was kept well out of sight.
It is a well written and researched book that tells a difficult story. It is hard to believe that western governments can be responsible for so much pain and misery across the world. Yet story by story the picture is revealed and like art it does need some interpretation. That said Pilger paints a very black canvas, which it is difficult to feel good about.
Go and buy this book, read it and make your own mind up, this had more of an effect on me than No logo did. I feel I can have a small effect on the issues raised in that book. However I can't stop a CIA trained group killing people in Central America, no more than I can persuad the US administration that different ways of running the world are possible. It is back to Stewart Brand and the Long Now book, if commerce and governce run rough shod over culture and nature then we may ruin this place in the long term for the sake of a few in the west.
Building Social Web Applications by Gavin Bell.