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February 28, 2003
Smart Mobs - What Marketers can Learn from Pol Pot
Posted by The Happy Tutor
W. David Stephenson: Is it time to turn over security to smart mobs?
Interesting thought, but should we be concerned about a kind of "Red Guards" or "vigilantee" or "lynch mob" version of smart mobs? In other words, could the mob be stampeded and turned into a state sponsored vigilanteeism? The duct tape thing is a case in point. It is funny in a grim way, but what if the government edict were to isolate and round up people meeting a certain ethnic description? I can see an unscrupulous marketing type getting a stampede going and then acting innocent, as if the innuendoes he had let loose were all in the mind of the perceiver. To the end Hitler denied the Camps, or letting lose anti-semitism. The smart in "smart mobs" appeals to me less than the "mob" in smart mobs concerns me. If it really is an alternative to top down control, OK, but all the examples in Rheingold's book look to me like marketing and media stampedes -- fad management. Are we studying these social systems to liberate mankind or to weave even finer nets?
I know the answer, so does Stephenson, and so does Rheingold, which is why, I think, Howard keeps his (presumably progressive) politics muted in that book, Smart Mobs. He doesn't want to scare off all the marketing whizzes and government types who read him as Goebbels read Gustav Le Bon (on The Behavior of Crowds) to turn the mob to their corporate, personal, or governmental purposes. Democracy as marketing gimmick.
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Later: With clarification from Howard, I am prepared to say that his goal is not ideological, merely to "shed a little light and find truth" and as for the chips, they are in the hands of the gods, or of the market, and will fall as they may. Ah well a day!
Smart Mobs - What Marketers can Learn from Pol Pot
Posted by The Happy Tutor
W. David Stephenson: Is it time to turn over security to smart mobs?
Interesting thought, but should we be concerned about a kind of "Red Guards" or "vigilantee" or "lynch mob" version of smart mobs? In other words, could the mob be stampeded and turned into a state sponsored vigilanteeism? The duct tape thing is a case in point. It is funny in a grim way, but what if the government edict were to isolate and round up people meeting a certain ethnic description? I can see an unscrupulous marketing type getting a stampede going and then acting innocent, as if the innuendoes he had let loose were all in the mind of the perceiver. To the end Hitler denied the Camps, or letting lose anti-semitism. The smart in "smart mobs" appeals to me less than the "mob" in smart mobs concerns me. If it really is an alternative to top down control, OK, but all the examples in Rheingold's book look to me like marketing and media stampedes -- fad management. Are we studying these social systems to liberate mankind or to weave even finer nets?
I know the answer, so does Stephenson, and so does Rheingold, which is why, I think, Howard keeps his (presumably progressive) politics muted in that book, Smart Mobs. He doesn't want to scare off all the marketing whizzes and government types who read him as Goebbels read Gustav Le Bon (on The Behavior of Crowds) to turn the mob to their corporate, personal, or governmental purposes. Democracy as marketing gimmick.
--
Later: With clarification from Howard, I am prepared to say that his goal is not ideological, merely to "shed a little light and find truth" and as for the chips, they are in the hands of the gods, or of the market, and will fall as they may. Ah well a day!
February 27, 2003
Who is the Master? And, Who is the Servant?
Posted by The Happy Tutor
At the Council on Foundations Conference on Family Philanthropy, the keynote speaker, was Stephen Kirsch, a Silicon Valley CEO; he spoke of Bush as the CEO of our country. All too true. Not a public servant, mind you, but the Boss of Bosses. The CEO over all CEOs.
Political Freedom inside the Company Firewall: Have you ever heard of such a thing? Leave your Citizenship at the Company gate.
Market Freedom from 9 am - 5 pm. Political Freedom from 5 pm to 9 am. On Company Time the CEO issues commands, hires and fires, tracks all emails, sets dress code and style guidelines, says who can and can't talk to the press, give a speech or maintain a weblog. On Company Time the CEO speaks for me, whether in Washington through our lobby, in the courts through our litigation team, to our customers through marketing, or to the masses of employees assembled to cheer his words.
In the public square, by contrast, the President of the US is not the Boss; though he may have been a CEO in his prior life. The President is a servant of the People to whom he must render an accounting of his stewardship of our public assets. The man today does not even know his own job description. He does not know what Democracy is, that it is responsive to all citizens. He thinks it means managing the country to maximize corporate profits and dominate markets worldwide.
Insurbordination? Yes, but the question, you see, is who is in charge. We the people or the Boss of all Bosses? Mr. President! As my Public Servant, assume the position!
Who is the Master? And, Who is the Servant?
Posted by The Happy Tutor
At the Council on Foundations Conference on Family Philanthropy, the keynote speaker, was Stephen Kirsch, a Silicon Valley CEO; he spoke of Bush as the CEO of our country. All too true. Not a public servant, mind you, but the Boss of Bosses. The CEO over all CEOs.
Political Freedom inside the Company Firewall: Have you ever heard of such a thing? Leave your Citizenship at the Company gate.
Market Freedom from 9 am - 5 pm. Political Freedom from 5 pm to 9 am. On Company Time the CEO issues commands, hires and fires, tracks all emails, sets dress code and style guidelines, says who can and can't talk to the press, give a speech or maintain a weblog. On Company Time the CEO speaks for me, whether in Washington through our lobby, in the courts through our litigation team, to our customers through marketing, or to the masses of employees assembled to cheer his words.
In the public square, by contrast, the President of the US is not the Boss; though he may have been a CEO in his prior life. The President is a servant of the People to whom he must render an accounting of his stewardship of our public assets. The man today does not even know his own job description. He does not know what Democracy is, that it is responsive to all citizens. He thinks it means managing the country to maximize corporate profits and dominate markets worldwide.
Insurbordination? Yes, but the question, you see, is who is in charge. We the people or the Boss of all Bosses? Mr. President! As my Public Servant, assume the position!
Barbara Blouin's New Website
Posted by The Happy Tutor
Barabara Bluin has revamped The Inheritance Project website. One of the amazing things about America is while we all want to be rich, we never stop to think seriously about what it must be like to be born rich -- to have begun at the fabled end of the rainbow. Barbara has lived it, thought about it, talked with hundreds of inheritors, and provides a classically balanced perspective. We will soon be a nation most of whose wealth is in the hands of inheritors, or in their trusts and foundations. If Bush succeeds in repealing the estate tax, wealth will be even more concentrated in the hands of dynastic families. You might want to learn more about the issues of concern to those whose lives are shaped by inheritance. Barbara is the one contemporary author on inherited wealth whose work I can't read, place, and put aside. We have spent several years talking, feuding, talking again about the role of wealth in a democratic society. She has a liberally educated mind and a moral presence to be reckoned with. Get to know her writing, particularly if you or someone you know (like your President) is one of those trust fund babies. (For GW, blame Barbara, but not Blouin.)
Barbara Blouin's New Website
Posted by The Happy Tutor
Barabara Bluin has revamped The Inheritance Project website. One of the amazing things about America is while we all want to be rich, we never stop to think seriously about what it must be like to be born rich -- to have begun at the fabled end of the rainbow. Barbara has lived it, thought about it, talked with hundreds of inheritors, and provides a classically balanced perspective. We will soon be a nation most of whose wealth is in the hands of inheritors, or in their trusts and foundations. If Bush succeeds in repealing the estate tax, wealth will be even more concentrated in the hands of dynastic families. You might want to learn more about the issues of concern to those whose lives are shaped by inheritance. Barbara is the one contemporary author on inherited wealth whose work I can't read, place, and put aside. We have spent several years talking, feuding, talking again about the role of wealth in a democratic society. She has a liberally educated mind and a moral presence to be reckoned with. Get to know her writing, particularly if you or someone you know (like your President) is one of those trust fund babies. (For GW, blame Barbara, but not Blouin.)
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