My Take | The pseudo-reality we all live in
- The distinction between democracy and authoritarianism is increasingly blurred, as is the difference between customers and citizens because governments and corporations have turned to complex network systems to monitor, predict and control our behaviour
“Men of genius” and journalists are words not usually found in the same sentence. More often, they are diametrically opposite beings. But the American writer Walter Lippmann comes readily to mind. His 1922 classic Public Opinion, hit me like a brick when I first read it for a journalism class I had to teach once. He wrote it when he was just 33. At that age, sadly, I could barely write a 1,000-word features article without getting completely lost. He was, by then, advising US presidents.
Geniuses like William Blake may live in a world of their own creation; sometimes we call that madness or psychosis. Most of us, however, live in a “shared” world created or constructed by the various media around us. We are both their products and consumers. To slightly rephrase an old joke about who the sucker is around a gambling table, if you look around and can’t find what products your favourite social media platform is selling, well, you are the product.
People talk about George Orwell’s 1984 as a warning to the future. But Lippmann’s Public Opinion describes the world we live in now. At this point in our history, the distinction between democracy and authoritarianism is increasingly blurred. Both types of government – and the corporate elites – turn increasingly to complex network systems to monitor, predict and control the behaviour of citizens and clients. As a means of control, the jackboot in your face is just too primitive and unsophisticated.