Network effect and elites
What the present ruling class undervalues in its arrogance is the unlimited capabilities of the network effect. In the present highly “networked” world, the network effect only can provide the elite with the necessary means to hold real power in hands. Not money (98% of which is a thin air of bubblenomics) but the mass appreciation in social networks can guarantee enough power to control (to some extent) the global population.
The network effect has nothing similar to a cudgel of bank credits that holds people in fear making them hate the System in their hearts. This is a more delicate instrument to resonate with which some special skills need to be learned. Should the elites who are always busy with “important stuff” learn to do so?
They should first comprehend that masses are continuously re-evaluating the role of common people in the creation and distribution of the online content. Common people do not want to meekly listen to the official broadcasters any longer. The present-day digital networks allow citizens to create discourses on an equal footing with official media channels. The days when a silent majority had no voice at all have gone forever.
Such “one-way” channels as radio and television in which only a “one-to-many” (elite-to-masses) mode of content distribution is possible are facing a strong competitor that provides both “one-to-one” (peer-to-peer) and “many-to-many” (forums) modes of communication — the internet. Formerly voiceless “little people” got access to a chamber where any humble servant can shout louder than any king — the networks.
Social media redistribute the true social influence from a small group of elitists with their pocket media to broad masses with their network effect. The following essential definition of a network effect lies in such redistribution: the more participants are included in a network, the bigger value the network acquires. Pay your attention: not “listeners” or “viewers” but full participants are implied.
This is how postmodernity comes knocking at our door. Thanks to a network effect the lower classes have an opportunity to question the very image of elites quite safely. And the nicest aspect in it is that the new postmodern ethics allows plebs to show all possible impiety towards powers-that-be. The police with its rubber bullets and tear gas is powerless against a virtual community of like-minded people even though they gather spontaneously and for a while. Even with a humble network effect, they can launch a self-evolving process of damaging any elitarian image however influential the carrier of that image is.
Such an elitist will never be nice and fluffy for a wide audience anymore. And if the campaign appeals clearly to people’s sense of justice, its network effect starts growing rapidly. After that, any “whitening” via official TV can not be of any help — the “days of glory” of the elitist are numbered. Unless, of course, such a person can arrange an equal network counter-effect. Thus, a battle for a status today is a battle between network effects.
