Technology companies will dominate the politics of my children’s generation.
It’s inevitable. The politics of oil and resources dominated my time because the key political issues of that time revolved around resources and access to them. That’s what the Arab oil embargo was all about in 1973. It’s what the Iranian embargo was about in 1979. It’s why we went to war in 1990. That’s why we invaded Iraq. It was oil. Anyone who denies this is like those who deny the Holocaust, or who claim slavery to have been good for black people. They’re lying and should not be heard again on any subject.
In the same way, the politics of manufacturing dominated the lives of my parents. That’s what the Great Depression was about, what World War II was about, what the development of the military-industrial complex was about. It was about creating new markets for the abundance of factories. That’s what the suburbanization of America was about. It was about ginning up demand. Mass consumption leads to mass production.
The point is every American generation has a dominant industry, one whose problems and demands come to control American politics. It will be the same with technology. I, for one, welcome our new Google overlords.
I do, that is, assuming they make the right choices now, assuming they understand where their own self-interest lies, and assuming they take steps to defend it.
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