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Technology And Its Impact On Political Leaders
from the who-always-underestimate-it... dept
From textually comes a short, but quite interesting, summary of how new technologies have given people more power over news and information and how it always seems to catch the political elite (used to controlling information) unaware. What were we just saying about new technologies keeping people honest? Still, there are those who will (rightfully) argue that technology can also be used by those in power to do harm as well. Technology is not a one way street. Still it is interesting to see how often political leaders completely underestimate the power of technology in the hands of their own citizens.
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What about overestimation and demagoguery?
American political leaders and activists have habitually overestimated the ability of "free radio", fax machines, internet, etc. to cause revolutions in other countries.
When anybody can produce low-quality information that is supposedly "grass roots" and "genuine", what's to prevent political operatives from spreading false rumors, e.g. that Jews all took vacations on September 11th because they knew it was coming. This tidbit, spread as "the truth" on many "independent" media sites, was just a rumor cooked up by Arab media.
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Clueless politicos
"Still it is interesting to see how often political leaders completely underestimate the power of technology in the hands of their own citizens."
You get to be a political leader by working your way up through the system (unless you're fabulously wealthy or your last name is Schwarzenegger, of course). This takes time, which ensures that most powerful politicos are middle-aged or older. That demographic is always surprised by technological development, and always will be.
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Re: Clueless politicos
Schwarzenegger married into politics. Worth mentioning, this.
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Inappropriate example
True, but those photos embarrassing Cell Block #9 aren't a good example, because once they came out way, way after the fact, all the big media powers were hyping them up, down, left, right, and center.
A better example of technology leveling the playing field is http://www.acepilots.com/unscam/, which provides an authoritative resource on a story that the powerful are trying to ignore.
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