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               --/\--				The Information Revolution
             /  /  \  \				Power & Oligarchy
         ---|--/----\--|---			McLuhan's Global Village
             \/      \/
             /\______/\				by Jesse Hirsh



"The extensions of human consciousness are projecting themselves
into the total world environment via electronics, forcing
humankind into a robotic future."1

	The information revolution is here; transforming the globe; we
witness the information age. This is the second
industrial revolution; a change in the means of production;
accompanied by volatile frontier capitalism. Vast amounts of
wealth are being created and centralized as large information
based corporations explore and expand the electronic frontier.
The proliferation of information technology has and will
continue to have profound effects upon society, changing the
industrialized world into a fully integrated information economy.
	The information revolution creates global information
institutions that harness all the effects and benefits of
globalization, and create the global corporate state. The
individuals in control of these institutions form a political
elite, whose strength grows as its numbers diminish. The iron
law of oligarchy continues as global organization yields global
rule, and a global elite. Among the ranks of this elite are the
owners of the technology, supported by subservient classes of a
corporate and technical elite. This essay examines these issues,
then begins to present options for resistance towards this
global power move.
	Marshall McLuhan in The Global Village illustrates the
transformative and oligarchic natures of the emerging media. It
is in this work that McLuhan identifies the trend in
communications that he terms "Global Robotism". This term
describes a method of social organization that accompanies the
proliferation of electronic media such as computers, satellites,
global networks, and multi-way video communication. Humanity
extends itself into the electronic environment, lending itself
to electronic organization. We witness the emergence of a global
machine, a global computer that is alive with a developing
global consciousness, derived from the collective efforts of
millions of human participants. GAIA rises from the
industrialized world.

"As man succeeds in translating his central nervous system into
electronic circuitry, he stands on the threshold of outering his
consciousness into the computer."2

	This essay also takes into consideration the work of C. Wright
Mills, and Robert Michels in order to understand the potential
role of the new power structure that emerges in the wake of the
information revolution. Their works are concerned with the roles
of elites in mass organization, they illustrate the present and
potential roles of an elite within the burgeoning information
age.

"As the institutional means of power and the means of
communications that tie them together have become steadily more
efficient, those now in command of them have come into command
of instruments of rule quite unsurpassed in the history of
mankind."3

The information revolution creates a new institution that
enhances existing ones, while creating a new and unique global
entity. The proliferation of computers and advanced
communication technology throughout society provide the medium
that is revolutionizing the means of production. Converging
media create the potential for a unified electronic environment
in which mass media are homogenized into a standardized mosaic
of human communication. Decentralization on the micro level
yields massive centralization on the macro scale. Multimedia and
interactive technologies become the central modes of
communication, and a new environment is created in which
everything is considered data; the user merges with the data
base as the system becomes so total that exclusion is a
technical impossibility. The earth reduces itself to binary code
to form an institution of global power.

"More and more people will enter the market of information
exchange, lose their private identities in the process, but
emerge with the ability to interact with any person on the face
of the globe. Mass, spontaneous electronic referendums will
sweep across continents. The concept of nationalism will fade
and regional governments will fall as the political implications
of spaceship earth create a world government."4

	The people in control of this emerging global governance, wield
power unsurpassed by previous regimes or empires; the hegemony
of information power. The information media penetrates into our
lives, transforming us: the media is the message. 

"There are no more passengers, only crew. Such a grasp of
totality suggests the possibility of control not only of the
planet but of change itself."5

	The information revolution is a bourgeois corporate revolution,
of the highest magnitude. Enacted by large conglomerates, it is
fueled by their continued investment and research & development.
The corporate world benefits the most from the success of the
information revolution. This is true for the simple reason that
they own, operate, and create the revolution. Through its
enactment the corporate sector is experiencing its greatest
empowerment ever, gross profits at the highest levels and the
expansion of the corporate state.
	This empowerment is accompanied by the emergence of a corporate
elite. An elite that integrates itself into the foundation, or
backbone of the information society. Their infiltration if not
creation of the emerging environment of human communication
places them at centre-ground; everywhere and yet seemingly
nowhere at all times.

"The multi-carrier media corporation has the peculiar ability to
be a media orchestrator, to link all video-related technologies,
whether satellite, earth station, microwave, date base, or
computer into a resonating whole."6

	The two corporate giants, American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T)
and International Business Machines (IBM), are built upon information
technology, and through the information revolution are increasing their
global dominance. Through centralized government-military-industrial
spending and their own monopolistic practices they are among the largest
corporations in the world. Together they hold the copyrights and patents
on most of the technology of the past, present, and future.7 Now through
deregulation these American centred organizations are able to wield and
develop their power on a global scale. Their presence within the global
arena places them as competitors for global power. 
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	Some of their current financial figures illustrate just how
large these companies are. AT&T in 1993 had a total revenue of
$67.2 billion with a profit of $3.97 billion.8 Similarly IBM's
revenue for 1994 was $64.1 billion with profits reaching $3.02
billion.9 Their economic performance rates better than most
nations. IBM has a practical monopoly in the large computer
mainframe10 industry, supplying 72% of the mainframes in the
world, primarily to corporate and government clients.11 AT&T has
generated huge revenue through virtual telephone monopolies, and
these are likely to grow as they begin marketing multi-way
television technology.12 Both of these companies compete with
other smaller information technology companies acting as the
vanguard of the information revolution. The fate of countless
other companies, not to mention nation-states rests upon the
implementation and further development of information technology
by these two competing communication conglomerates. To
understand the oligarchic potential consider the impact that
their information technology will have on financial
institutions. McLuhan states:

"There is no technical reason why the 40,000 - odd financial
institutions in North America devoted to banking, securities,
and insurance could not be merged into a single institution
through electronic means."13
McLuhan continues to describe this process:
Using EFT: electronic fund transfers, "banks are able to
transfer money electronically between customers bank accounts"
which in effect enables "the creation of a super bank through
the electric linking of literally hundreds of local and regional
data sources to provide the entire Western world a view of your
social and economic standing."14

	The information revolution is accompanied by the liberation of
capital, generating the gross amounts it needs to continue
developing and profiting. As the implementation of this new
media continues the intensity of future development increases.
The rate of change, and the rate of growth operates on an
exponential scale, requiring increasing amounts of capital to
fuel the industrial expansion. Free Trade allows the
globalization of capital that enables the creation of the global
banking institution, and at the same time enhancing global
centralization through the protection of American intellectual
property.
	It is in this context that AT&T and IBM offer the best
contemporary example of oligarchic rule. 

"The commercial corporate organization is, after all, a broad
extension of the human mind; it develops controlling structures
to organize human behaviour to produce an economic benefit."15

	 The control of such an organization is purposefully
hierarchical, centralizing control into the hands of the few
members on the board of directors, and indirectly the minority
of society who are share holders. Therefore if a few large
corporations control society, through their control of the
increasingly dominant information industry, the traditional
pattern of rule by the few continues.
	Accompanying this rule of the few, will be a similar oligarchic
pattern on the micro level. The information regime requires a
class of technical administrators to act as enforcers who are
able to wield the power centralized by means of information
technology. The process of decentralization that occurs on the
micro level is accompanied by centralization within these
diverging centres.

"In short, the entire operation has been miniatruized, speeded
up, and placed under the direction of one mind instead of
several."16

	System administrators with the aid of computer technology
single-handedly control information networks. They bear the
responsibilities of access, security, maintenance, and general
network structure. Through control of the technology they are
also in control of the users. This one person can make the
decision whether a user may operate on the system; what, when,
and how they operate on it; as well as having access to all
personal records and actions made by that individual user. This
pattern of technological control is explicitly oligarchic.
	This oligarchic pattern resembles similar trends described by
Robert Michels who stated: "Who says organization, says
oligarchy"17. As information is organized on a global scale,
control of such information is in the hands of technical
administrators, forming a new bureaucratic class. This class
will act as support for the new political elite that accompanies
the proliferation of information technology.

"The bad news is that all persons, whether or not they
understand the processes of computerized high-speed data
transmission, will lose their old private identities. What
knowledge there is will be available to all. So, in that sense,
everybody will be nobody. Everyone will be involved in robotic
role-playing including those few elitists who interpret or
manage large-scale data patterns and thus control the functions
of a speed-of-light society. The more quickly the rate of
information exchange speeds up, the more likely we will all
merge into a new robotic corporate entity, devoid of true
specialism which has been the hallmark of our old private
identities. The more information one has to evaluate, the less
one knows. Specialism cannot exist at the speed of light."18

	In conclusion, the information revolution is the latest attempt
by a small elite to consolidate its control on society and
reinforce the oligarchy that has traditionally existed. It
threatens to support the iron law of oligarchy which states that
as society continues to grow and further organize it
simultaneously centralizes power and control into the hands of
the few. At present the media is swamped with
information-hypeway and all the positive aspects of information
technology. This purposeful misinformation, and to some extent
indoctrination, serves to cloud the minds of the public into
thinking they are aware of the changes, and furthermore approve
of them. Yet throughout this second industrial revolution very
few are critically addressing the transformations that are
occurring.
	The information revolution can be expressed in the metaphor of
Noah's Ark. Great rains are falling, determined to flood the
world. For most the choice will come down to sink or swim.
However those who can be quick on the mark, recognize early
what's going on, might still have enough time to build their own
boat, and find their own piece of land in the new frontier.
Perhaps the opportunity to participate in the development of the
future.
	As the ruling class continues its consolidation of power, and
the strengthening of the oligarchy, opposition to its tyranny
grows. A resistance emerges to counter this flow of power, as
awareness of this change increases.
	Perhaps the most successful resistance movement, or more
accurately described counterculture, are the so-called
"hackers". The average computer hacker epitomizes McLuhan's
concept of ground within an electronic environment. Under the
threat of severe retaliation and persecution, hackers are forced
to maintain a myriad of identities, inhabiting a widely
distributed area, blending into and becoming ground. A hacker
will have hundreds if not thousands of "accounts" or access
points to an information system. Like the power elite themselves
they have integrated themselves into the framework of the
electronic environment. Through exploration of "backdoors" and
security holes hackers have familiarized themselves with the
inner workings of the system so as to dissolve into its
structure. They have been able to obtain unlimited access, to
the extent that they themselves actively participate in the
development of the emerging media. They constitute an opposition
to corporate centralization that increases with the success of
those same corporate interests. Their belief in the freedom of
information, places them as the most serious and severe threat
to the emerging new order. Yet at the same time relatively
little is known about this counterculture, an indication of
their success at embodying the concept of ground.
	Another form of resistance that is emerging in the changing
information environment are community groups demanding their own
empowerment in the ongoing information revolution. These public
interest groups are commendable in the sense that they oppose
corporate centralization and greed, however their actions at
present seem only to re-enforce the corporate process of
empowerment. Tragically the large majority of these groups are
still convinced that the "content" is the message, and are
directing actions accordingly. In effect these organizations are
dealing with the information revolution on a shallow and
superficial level. As long as they ignore the role of the medium
itself within the electronic environment, they will remain
subservient to the corporate order.
	This raises the role of awareness within the possibility of
resistance. Clearly awareness is essential in determining
possible courses of action. However awareness alone cannot
achieve change, it obviously must be accompanied by action. One
would hope that awareness would increase revolutionary fervour
and the desires for social justice rather than simply unite
apathy with corporate obedience.
	The military-industrial complex has successfully integrated
itself into the innermost workings of our society. Military
technology can now be found within every home, and every
workplace. The institution itself has effectively dissolved into
the essence of our society. We are now all members of this
powerful entity, and we must turn to the ground to not only
ensure our survival as socially just human beings, but also
fight for the survival of our species. The option of running
away to the hills no longer seems to be available. We are
surrounded on all sides; our only option is to confront the
changes taking place and hope to have some effect on their
outcome.

Time to get our shit together....

1 McLuhan, Marshall & Powers, Bruce; The Global Village; Oxford
University Press, New York 1989, pp. viii

2 McLuhan & Powers; The Global Village; pp. 94

3 Mills, C. Wright; The Power Elite, pp. 23

4 McLuhan & Powers; The Global Village; pp. 118

5 McLuhan & Powers; The Global Village; pp. 98

6 McLuhan & Powers; The Global Village; pp. 119

7 All information used in this essay on AT&T and IBM comes from
their respective Web sites on the internet that can be reached
through the following addresses:

http://www.att.com/

http://www.ibm.com/

8 AT&T Corporate Report 1993, from
http://www.att.com/finance.html

9 IBM corporate report 1994, from http://www.ibm.com/finance.html

10 Mainframes are super-computers, often the size of several
rooms, that are the essential components of computing in any
medium to large sized organization.

11 From IBM Web site http://www.ibm.com/industry.html

12 From http://www.att.com/future.html

13 McLuhan & Powers; The Global Village; pp. 91

14 McLuhan & Powers; The Global Village; pp. 111

15 McLuhan & Powers; The Global Village; pp. 121

16 McLuhan & Powers; The Global Village; pp. 106

17 Michels, Robert; Political Parties; Free Press, New York
1962, pp. 365

18 McLuhan & Powers; The Global Village; pp. 129

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