The last century has gone through various mediums and mass communications cycles, such as the old print society, where printed word was considered final, followed by the radio, TV and internet society, and has now entered the global cyber-branding society using hyper-mass-communication methods such as E-voting.
This phase of justifying the decision of complex issues based on untraceable electronic pulses raises some serious questions, as most of the global population is oblivious to the inner intricacies of such global networking systems and highly programmed devices, just as they were during the workings of last century's newspaper barons.
If we accept knowledge as the real bond of society, and printed word its biggest breakthrough of the period, then today, the flow and control of information will hold ever more power. The technical capacity of a single source to communicate and regulate information at a massive global scale will establish itself as the new phenomenon.
In this current race, brandable ideas of commerce and geopolitical issues will become more easily globally visible than ever before, as people work, travel and interact in several countries simultaneously, these sudden powers of new voting creating super-explosive-exposure will also increase the number of new groups, new nations with new flags around the world. Thinking is a luxury, which always demands time, peace and isolation will increasingly become the most sought after commodity of today during this thoughtless, impulsive decision phase of the period.
Today, free democracy meets free voting, creating freedom beyond control and new liberties, creating a mess. It is still the calm before the storm.
Perhaps we have already created the greatest wonder of all: an interconnected-interdependent-interlinked-global-society of amazing proportions.
Now the danger looms in harnessing the opinions of the global masses. Move aside the polling that delivered 'whatever you want to hear', and focus groups that created 'hand-holding co-dependant, out of focus opinions'. Here comes the Global Billion E-Vote Machine. The current 18-month play on the Seven Wonders by Bernard Weber, a Swiss filmmaker, museum curator and first to express the “first global exercise of democracy”, whose project permitted duplicated votes which ballooned to 100 million, has now created a new benchmark. Now that the BCC has recently banned telephone-voting, following some large scandals and concerns over various online voting contests, one only wonders what will occur during the next American Idol or the US election in November 2008?
Overall, we exist in a turbulent, highly-interconnected and hyper-accelerated unstoppable journey on fast forward, where the mind becomes number with increased speed and action, blurred direction, tickling the sub-conscious and taking us far away from ground realities. The stage is set, and the greater struggle of current times to create the next wonder of the world is on. Then again, the most amazing question asked during any visit to an ancient ruin is often what the supreme command was really thinking.
These mass communication methods often used by polls and focus groups, often designed to issue mind-altering opinions to reconstruct truth has always been a prime principal of propaganda machines throughout history. Short blasts of highly intense and strategic propaganda have altered perceptions and crafted illusions, which can easily dilute the image branding process of mega issues, when caught in the crossfire.
Just when you thought the massive influx of cell phones were settled as simple pocket devices for calling, a new function emerges, making each phone a portable-voting-booth… Embrace yourself for strange and random resolutions passed by the global populace via their impulsive voting habits derived from reality TV shows.
We have created an online public democracy, where public opinion can be expressed in extraordinary ways, as the next one-billion-citizen poll on another global issue is already in progress, this raises the big question: should untraceable digital democracy reflect public opinion? Let's e-vote on it…
