Sovereign Individual - book that explains Trump and wtf is wrong with us
I recently picked up a book called “The Sovereign Individual”, recommended by Marc Andreessen. The authors promise the end of governments as we know it, in favor of a cyberspace economy, without physical borders, or compulsion by violence (follow my laws and pay taxes or else). The book envisions an Information Age where governments of the world treat people like customers rather than citizens.
The timing is eerily on point here as the world seems to be coming undone. Brexit showed that the disenfranchised masses in Britain and Trumpeteers here in the states are a part of global populist phenomenon, but that the comedy is quickly becoming a tragedy.
It doesn’t help that we look down on the disenfranchised. We seem to have learnt little as history repeats itself in cycles going back to the fall of Rome, the horror of the Bolshevik experiment and now the rise of nationalist populism.
Those in power (government and business) are incentivized to keep the status quo (protect their authority/keep their jobs), so they often do too little until it’s too late. Their last ditch efforts (often meant to assuage) only infuriate the opposition and accelerate the cataclysm.
You don’t need to be a news junkie to know that something is up. There are petitions in London to become a city state. Quebec has lobbied to tear up Canada along the lines of language, and hatred among the old republics of Yugoslavia is simmering just below the surface. I won’t even start with the Middle East and ISIS. (Since I wrote this we now have far right populist movements gaining power everywhere across Europe).
The book leans way too Ayn Randian for my liking, but the authors have had predictive power in the past (earlier books) which is unsettling. They compare today’s governments and local monopolies on nationalism to the Catholic Church right around the 1500s with its monopoly on interpretation of the scripture and hence the understanding of the right and the wrong.
The Catholic Church used to have the power to hang people for disagreeing with it (heresy). Today it’s practically a joke. U.S. economy used to be an export behemoth, today it’s China. Detroit, the Church of American Auto Manufacturing, stands in ruins. People who used to man the factory floors in decades past, stand vote for Trump because they are disenfranchised,angry and scared. In more recent developments, Nazis have found a national stage and seems like everyone in power is a sexual deviant.
Technology is changing the world at a pace most people can’t keep up with and things are only going to accelerate. I fear that unless government and businesses give people with an anachronistic careers the means to provide for their families, we may find ourselves with a joke of a government of a second tier nation. This line of thought is a partial inspiration for my work with Parsable. But then, I’m a drop of water in the sea.
We are not quite in the Information Age yet (the new suggested paradigm). The physical borders are real and so is unfortunately the violence, so whether some may like it or not, we need Uncle Sam to take care of us, especially with folks who don’t write or sell software.
