{"id":2098,"date":"2016-02-21T10:34:08","date_gmt":"2016-02-21T18:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?p=2098"},"modified":"2020-08-26T15:15:54","modified_gmt":"2020-08-26T22:15:54","slug":"understanding-the-nets-disruption-of-the-power-of-narrative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/understanding-the-nets-disruption-of-the-power-of-narrative\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding the Net’s disruption of the Power of Narrative, in historical context"},"content":{"rendered":"

The greatest power you can hold in any society is the Power of Narrative \u2013 the position where other people turn to you to find out what\u2019s true and what\u2019s false, and to interpret the events around us. The Internet completely upends the previous holders of this power, and a lot of the conflict on the net can be traced back to this power \u2013 specifically the transition of this power.<\/strong><\/p>\n

To understand how important this is, you can try asking a friend this hypothetical question: if they got to write the news for a week, and everybody would accept what was claimed in those news as unquestionable and complete truth, what would they write?<\/p>\n

Those who think in terms of exploiting the situation come up with the idea of writing they\u2019re rich, they\u2019ve got attractive property, that they\u2019re desirable personally, et cetera. This is missing the point by a wide margin.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re control of what\u2019s true and false, you don\u2019t need<\/em> money. Or anything else, ever again. You have a position where you can make the entirety of humanity want to supply your every need on a whim. You can choose to be a demigod among men \u2013 and that\u2019s exactly how this power has been traditionally used, or abused.<\/p>\n

We call this power to hold the Power of Narrative.<\/em><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s illustrate what happens in transitions of this power. In the 14th century, books in Europe were copied laboriously by hand, by monks and nuns in monasteries. This meant the Catholic Church had an absolute control over what books existed, and of course, all of them were in Latin.<\/p>\n

The printing press of 1453 broke this, though it wasn\u2019t apparent at first. It took a clergyman named Martin Luther to start protesting abuse of the Power of Narrative \u2013 specifically, the detail where the Catholic Church claimed they had the ability to forgive sins in exchange for sums of money. This detail is what the history books tend to focus on, but the larger picture is the ability to claim something like that unverifiably in the first place.<\/p>\n

Remember, the Bible was in Latin. It only existed in Latin. And only the clergy could read Latin, and therefore, tell the masses what the Bible said. This is exactly the power imagined earlier in this article \u2013 the ability to say anything and have it taken for unquestionably true.<\/p>\n

So the real shocker came with the so-called Gutenberg Bibles, bibles printed by the cartload in French and German, that started appearing in the streets. At this point, the Catholic Church completely panicked, because all of a sudden, people could read and verify<\/em> the claims made. The church was no longer needed to read the Bible in Latin. This meant that the Church had lost the ability to interpret the text to its own advantage.<\/p>\n

This led to 200 years of civil war across the entire known world \u2013 the so-called \u201creligious wars\u201d \u2013 as the power of narrative transitioned multiple times.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So why did printing the Bible in a different language, a common language, lead to two centuries of civil war? Because the Church had lost a gatekeeper position over humanity\u2019s knowledge and culture.<\/em><\/p>\n

Using these technologies was increasingly repressed, with increasingly harsh penalties, until they hit the capital punishment. Yes, using a printing press at all \u2013 making an unauthorized copy \u2013 was punished by death in a law enacted in France on January 13, 1535. The official justification was to \u201cprevent the spread of dangerous ideas\u201d.<\/p>\n

Now\u2026 does any of this feel familiar<\/em> with regard to today\u2019s<\/em> situation with the Internet\u2019s disruption of the old guard?<\/p>\n

This is the perspective that needs to be applied when authorities demand the right to inspect what people are talking about, to determine what ideas are coming whence and going whither. To identify people who are spreading dangerous ideas \u2013 whatever that means to the current powers that be. To restrict the information flow to and from various sites and people where the ideas are becoming too challenging.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe record labels aren\u2019t really afraid of you putting their music on YouTube. They\u2019re afraid of you putting YOUR music on YouTube, without having to ever ask their permission\u201d, as a colleague nicely illustrated.<\/p>\n

The copyright industry is a small player in this transition. They\u2019re just the first skirmish \u2013 the tutorial level, if you like. Politicians don\u2019t care about what music is being played \u2013 but they do care if they can\u2019t control finances (bitcoin) and the newsflow.<\/p>\n

This is why every small effort to save the ongoing decentralization of ideas matters. That\u2019s a reason every struggle for privacy is important (not the only reason, but still). That\u2019s why the Internet must be defended. This is why governments must be kept out of our computers, devices, and phones, and why we must defend encryption.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s hope this transition of the Power of Narrative can be done more orderly than 200 years of civil war.<\/p>\n

Privacy remains your own responsibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The greatest power you can hold in any society is the Power of Narrative \u2013 the position where other people turn to you to find out what\u2019s true and what\u2019s false, and to interpret the events around us. The Internet completely upends the previous holders of this power, and a lot of the conflict on … Continue reading “Understanding the Net’s disruption of the Power of Narrative, in historical context”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nUnderstanding the Net's disruption of the Power of Narrative, in historical context<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The greatest power you can hold in any society is the Power of Narrative - the position where other people turn to you to find out what's true and what's\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/understanding-the-nets-disruption-of-the-power-of-narrative\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Understanding the Net's disruption of the Power of Narrative, in historical context\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The greatest power you can hold in any society is the Power of Narrative - 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