Customer Reviews

The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is probably a work of most impressive historical analysis as I have read ever. It had a great impact on my way of thinking but I have some reservations that might be of interest to new readers.

Authors prove that logic of violence explains most of human progress in western history but they end up skewing it towards the narrow realm of simplistic political structure of the west, conservatives VS librels. To be a work of real depth the authors should have given more attention to the other 'neccessary evil ;)' side of the capitalistic equation, i-e the economic impact and future of labor capital, and the underpreviledged in a society.

The capitalists can't logicaly sustain limitless greed in the name of output and efficiency, and be happy go lucky customers who control the government. All this efficiency through technology is truely great, but people operate techology and there are ones who don't, aren't capitalists, but still manage to do beautiful things, unseen or unsung. will you say they are not smart as capitalists?

Also, I think in essence so-called 'Muslim Fundamentalists' want the same thing captalists want, 'a better life' through logic of violence. So what is the difference?

This book offered some great insights into the Protestant Reformation. They point out how the Church was trying to crush the new innovations of the era. The Church had also become a massive bureaucracy, that was suppressing economic growth. They compare this to the current welfare democracies of the western world. The huge growth of governments, taxes, and regulation, seems to sound a lot like the Pre-Reformation Church.
The authors seem to feel the new Internet technology will have a huge changing effect on society. They compare this to the changes brought on by the invention of the printing press 500 years ago.

Whether it be Genesis as a parable for the agricultural revolution, or our mistrust of politicians and bureaucrats as a sign of impending change, this book provides insights into both where humanity has been and where it is going.

So said a wise philospher!

This book could have easily had this maxim as its subtitle. The authors cogently, and compellingly use historical trends to show that democracy as we know it is at an end.

Many will decry this book's "apocalyptic tone" but the fact remains that statistics don't lie: the majority of people do not vote in any election, which is one of the leading indicators of a democracy's demise. The authors use the example of the Roman church's hold on power during the Dark ages as a prime example of a system that lost its hold due to decadence from within. Because the leader's lived large at the expense of the common man, people no longer felt that religion had a relevence to their lives.

The same is true with politics today. We all know that the ruling class in this country lives large with perquisities and privaleges befitting royalty, all at taxpayer expense. Washington, or "inside the Beltway," is perceived as being so far removed from our daily lives that most politicians are looked upon with derision. Just watch how mercilessly they are pillioried in the popular culture, and in the media. This contempt for the nobles is but one of many signs that the nation-state is at an end.

It is very hard to get the average person to understand that times have changed, and the changes will dramatically effect our lives in every way. It is natural to want to hold onto what is familiar and safe. But the things that will be, will be regardless of protest or mawkish sentimentality, and these two authors have their fingers on the pulse of the future.

The authors in their eager and fanatical attempts to avoid

paying taxes propose a future where individuals are sovereign.

That is to say we can live in cyberspace and leave the rest of

the world to rot. Somehow physical reality is not as relavent to

the authors. While they surf in cyberspace real humans will

slave on their behalf to provide food and other commodities.

This to say the least is an elitist approach which blithely

ignores the fact that humans are social beings who thrive best

when acting in accordance to community needs.

The authors present some arguments which are sensible such

as the notion that the nation state is abusing its previlige to

tax citizens. You don't need a phd to figure that out!

What the authors ultimately present is what some have

dubbed "the cult of the individual". Imagine if the organs

in your body decided to act as "sovereign individuals" instead

of working as a "community". Imagine if your heart decided

to stop circulating blood because it felt it wasn't getting

a fair rate of return on its labor. From time immemorial

humans have survived and thrived by co-operating not by being

"sovereign individuals".

This book contains an explanatory theory of what the authors call Megapolitics. The theory is grounded in three past revolutions and predicts that we are in the middle of a fourth.

Each revolution is brought about by technology, occurs very quickly and almost invisibly to the participants.

The first revolution was the transition from hunter-gatherer to a world of private property, brought about by the technology of agriculture.

The second, around 1000AD, resulted from knights on horseback, and involved the transition from lawless anarchy to a world dominated by the Church and the code of chivalry.

The third transition happened due to gunpowder and the invention of the movable type printing press, around 1500AD, and resulted in the fall of the power of the Church, and the rise of centralized military power and eventually the nation-state.

The authors make a convincing case that the fourth transition is happening now due to the Internet and microprocessor. Over the last 1000 years, the returns on violence were going up, but now, with the Net and computing resources, the returns have gone down.

The authors say this will result in the decline of nation-states, and skilled individuals opting out of their "contract" between themselves and their government. These individuals, call them "haves", will be able to move their assets and possibly themselves so that they are subject to dramatically lower taxes.

There are a lot of nuances here but what makes this book so interesting is that it has detailed historical back-up. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the ramifications of the web and the microprocessor.

Like MegaTrends, Future Shock, and the Third Wave, this book depicts the world with multiple epics in World History. From the nation-state viewpoint it is a dystopian book, but it is absolutely fascinating.

In the Sovereign Individual, Davidson and Rees-Mogg take you on a sweeping journey of history and technology in demonstrating how institutions employing coercion on a mass scale(whether monarchies or states)have risen and fallen according to the demands of different technologies. In our not too distant future, microprocessing and the wide-spread dispersal of information technologies will lead to a massive devolution of power from the nation-state to "mini-sovereignties" while empowering individuals like never before. The implications are awesome for one of the most sweeping historical and economic changes(the information revolution)likely to happen--more so than what the industrial revolution did for agricultural society, and in a much quicker time frame. Many more individuals will have the opportunity to become truly sovereign, as assets and wealth are placed beyond the realm of political compulsion in cyberspace--a netherworld of total freedom. However, this is likely to provoke a furious nationalist/populist reaction against the new elite by those who are not as technologically and financially adept. Fasten your seatbelts!

At the end of the second paragraph in the preface to the British edition, the authors say that "...modern society is vulnerable. As vulnerable as the plate glass towers of the World Trade Centre." Hmmm...
A startling sentence. Why haven't the flakes of the world adopted this book as a new mystical text to replace the obfuscation of Nostradamus?
Any book that has such tragic insights on the first page is worth exploring.

There is a lot of good historical data in the book used to support a strong case. Worthy of serious consideration for the thinking man. However the book is also misleading. Anarchy will not take us through the door to a better world. Governments will fight back and hard and entrench deeper leading to one world government and a world dictator.

Our present system c/w it's obvious flaws needs to be loved, appreciated and carefully guarded in spite of it's inevitable decline.

The Taliban and terrorist activities will only serve to strengthen USA into a much greater super power.