It was Alvin Toffler’s book (not sure Future Shock or The Third Wave) which explained the changes taking place in the power structure over the last few years. It mentions how power changed its form from force: when people used weapons in ancient times to force others into doing things they did not want to like vacating their homelands, giving away their valuable things etc. Though, it will be naive to say that it used to happen only in ancient times as even today we have examples like Iraq war where the force is being used but the only difference being that this time it was done to protect the interests of people at large with international support (debate for another day).
Then came a time when the society became more civilized. So force as a form of power was replaced by a more civilized form i.e. money which could buy almost everything under the sun. And money as a form of power has been used consistently to serve political and commercial interests everywhere. Typical example would be what we see during elections when a cash-rich political party would give freebies to influence people’s opinion leading to shifting of power in their favor. Also we have seen how certain countries have been allegedly involved in financing civil wars and unrest in under developed countries to get control of their natural resources. Money in these cases has just acted as another form of weapon leading to conflicts, corruption which in turn has only created problems for common man. Then came the age of information which leveled the playing field to a certain extent where even an individual without much resource got an opportunity to wield power through mediums such as internet, TV etc. Earlier somebody who had money had power and now information became equivalent to power. It was this information that has helped unearth scams in the last few years in India and countries around the world. Easy access to market information has enabled the poor farmer to get a higher price for his produce in turn eliminating the intermediary’s role and the power that he wielded. Social networking sites have only helped the cause by acting as a platform for sharing information.
People who were under the impression that they could control others using force or money have come under serious threat due to the rise of information as a new force of power. But the old forces of power i.e. force and money is in no mood to let information replace them that easily. I was very surprised when I saw both forms of power i.e. force and money trying hard to control the newest form of power i.e. information in their own unique ways. Just read somewhere that Iran is sponsoring the censorship of internet before the elections considering the role played by internet and specifically the networking sites in Arab spring: this is force at work in modern times which not only leads to a bad name for someone wielding it, at the same time it begets strong reaction in the form of protests and demonstrations. Money as I said is a civilized way of doing things and the only difference between using money and force as power is that one is an armed robber and the other is a robber who wears suit. Money power manages to manipulate the image and hide the real intentions of people doing it. Recently we saw when Saudi price alwalled bin talal bought a decent stake in twitter which in turn may allow him to control the information exchange taking place online. May be that is not the objective behind the deal may be it is purely as an investment but the chances of that are very slim considering how twitter played its role during Arab spring. Iran and Prince are doing the same thing: they are trying to control information but one is using force and the other is using money. Control of information in any way should be stopped but everyone is busy criticizing only Iran as it is using force and nobody is saying a word about the Saudi price as it is being done under the garb of investment. And what is even more amazing is to see that all three forms of power i.e. force, money, information are trying hard to outsmart each other. Hopefully, information will come out a winner.
Then came a time when the society became more civilized. So force as a form of power was replaced by a more civilized form i.e. money which could buy almost everything under the sun. And money as a form of power has been used consistently to serve political and commercial interests everywhere. Typical example would be what we see during elections when a cash-rich political party would give freebies to influence people’s opinion leading to shifting of power in their favor. Also we have seen how certain countries have been allegedly involved in financing civil wars and unrest in under developed countries to get control of their natural resources. Money in these cases has just acted as another form of weapon leading to conflicts, corruption which in turn has only created problems for common man. Then came the age of information which leveled the playing field to a certain extent where even an individual without much resource got an opportunity to wield power through mediums such as internet, TV etc. Earlier somebody who had money had power and now information became equivalent to power. It was this information that has helped unearth scams in the last few years in India and countries around the world. Easy access to market information has enabled the poor farmer to get a higher price for his produce in turn eliminating the intermediary’s role and the power that he wielded. Social networking sites have only helped the cause by acting as a platform for sharing information.
People who were under the impression that they could control others using force or money have come under serious threat due to the rise of information as a new force of power. But the old forces of power i.e. force and money is in no mood to let information replace them that easily. I was very surprised when I saw both forms of power i.e. force and money trying hard to control the newest form of power i.e. information in their own unique ways. Just read somewhere that Iran is sponsoring the censorship of internet before the elections considering the role played by internet and specifically the networking sites in Arab spring: this is force at work in modern times which not only leads to a bad name for someone wielding it, at the same time it begets strong reaction in the form of protests and demonstrations. Money as I said is a civilized way of doing things and the only difference between using money and force as power is that one is an armed robber and the other is a robber who wears suit. Money power manages to manipulate the image and hide the real intentions of people doing it. Recently we saw when Saudi price alwalled bin talal bought a decent stake in twitter which in turn may allow him to control the information exchange taking place online. May be that is not the objective behind the deal may be it is purely as an investment but the chances of that are very slim considering how twitter played its role during Arab spring. Iran and Prince are doing the same thing: they are trying to control information but one is using force and the other is using money. Control of information in any way should be stopped but everyone is busy criticizing only Iran as it is using force and nobody is saying a word about the Saudi price as it is being done under the garb of investment. And what is even more amazing is to see that all three forms of power i.e. force, money, information are trying hard to outsmart each other. Hopefully, information will come out a winner.
