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The New Barbarian Manifesto
Journal of Strategic Information Systems 8 (1999) 449–451 www.elsevier.com/locate/jsis
Book Review The New Barbarian Manifesto Ian Angell, Kogan Page, 2000, ISBN 0-7494-3151-2 The New Barbarian Manifesto is a quick canter through the near future. It is a future in which the talented information-rich, the ‘new barbarians’, live in revived city states, their bank accounts held securely off-planet, with the information poor, at best, looking on in envy and, at worst, storming the barricades. It seems almost a return to ancient Rome with a small set of ‘chosen ones’ living in fine style and a vast underclass serving or attempting to destroy them. It is an age in which morals and the fabric of society are very different from the present. Yet, this future is at most a generation or two away and maybe here in as few as 20 years. We need to prepare ourselves now if we are going to be within not without. For most it will be a ‘new dark age’ (p. 116) but for the few it will be the ‘Age of Aquarius’ (p. 120). Indeed, this future ‘is already happening in the United States of America’ (p. 123). As in time immemorial, when one wants information on something new and obscure, one immediately turns to the web. Angell looks at the origins of cyberspace and the Internet and if we do a search on Barbarians on the web we do get some clues as to the real (or old) barbarians and what life may be like under the new ones. There are no new barbarians on the web but a search does give you a cricket club, an ad hoc rugby team, a site dedicated to a group called the Cult, and one for Staffordshire Terrier fanciers. But most promising, and the one that sheds some light on the new barbarians starts, ‘Barbarian Kings is a simulation of the Red Age of political and military turmoil on the island continent of Castafon situated in the northern quadrant of the Fira Ocean on the planet Hypastia. This is a world where magic works (sometimes), and men and near-men are as treacherous and as territorial as anywhere in the Universes’. That seems to just about sum it up. However, we can also get a more learned description of some earlier Barbarians that also sheds some light on this text, ‘That Odoacer sent Roman senators to plead his case in Constantinople shows that the rise of barbarian kings did not destroy Roman social structures in the western provinces. Although there was great suffering in the fifth century, in most places the framework of provincial society survived. The very existence of “barbarian kingdoms” depended upon that fact. The barbarians were a tiny minority in most of the areas where they settled. The migrating barbarians had not been entire societies in motion. Rather, they had been mercenary armies, of mixed ethnic origins, looking for a home: a prosperous area whose population could support a resident army’. So, perhaps the old barbarians were not that bad after all. 0963-8687/99/$ - see front matter 䉷 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S0963-868 7(00)00032-9
450
P. Powell / Journal of Strategic Information Systems 8 (1999) 449–451
As I started to read The New Barbarian Manifesto, it felt as if Ayn Rand had come to life and had started writing again. Sure enough she does pop up by page 170 and is a clear influence on some of the work here, Ayn Rand’s prediction of social and economic collapse has started — 50 years late, but it has started (p. 229). In addition to Ayn Rand, Alvin Toffler seems also to have helped form the manifesto and he crops up from time to time. Angell argues that the Machine Age is over and the Information Age has begun — and the latter is a great discontinuity from the former, ‘the utopia promised by science and technology has turned into a nightmare for the “Common Man”’ (p. 2). Unfortunately, ‘The few remaining optimists are deluding themselves’ (p. 22). So, what will this new world look like? ‘In the future I am predicting, information technology will wash away the state-drawn barriers drawn up to confine the new barbarian “economic mercenary”, the uniquely skilled entrepreneur and individualist’ (p. 193). It is a world in which ‘Mrs. Helmsley was right. Soon it will only be the little people who pay taxes’ (p. 25) and politicians’ ‘myth of control is laid bare’ (p. 25). ‘The successful commercial enterprise of the future will be truly global. It will relocate to where the profit is greatest and the regulation least’ (p. 27). This move reflects, ‘The painful lesson is that the taxes designed for the Machine Age cannot be collected on products from the Information Age’ (p. 34). In this new society, ‘To succeed, leadership must be strong in its striving, and ruthless’ (p. 99). Low taxes will be king, ‘Because of the need to entice global companies for the investment and employment they bring, not only will state be pitted against state but also area will compete against area, town against town, even suburb against suburb’ (p. 110). The Information Age encompasses people involved in symbolic–analytic services, in-person services and routine production services. Symbolic analysts are business gurus, sports stars, pop singers etc. Unfortunately, university professors are in the second category. And quite right too — it’s our fault, Angell sees universities as part of the problem, ‘I find myself forced to agree with the tidal wave of complaints from business indicating that the university as presently instituted is just not “delivering the goods”. Each group has a fixed reference point in time. For many, and I include the modern university in this, their sell-by date has well and truly passed’ (p. 76). Later, ‘There are very few European Universities that can independently develop the necessary will to support the global intellectual elite: they are mostly far to busy creating the ideal herd-animal for the state’ (p. 238). The new world will not be a pretty place, ‘I see the Internet creating consumers rather than producers; I see uncontrolled communication and arbitrary connection creating a world simmering with petty jealousies, resentments and imagined slights’ (p. 125). ‘I apologize for deliberately labouring this point here, but it is crucial to the thesis of this book: mass movements are from the now-defunct Machine Age’ (p. 24). The boundaries between what we now consider criminal and legitimate will blur, ‘Whatever happens, it is clear that new barbarians are going to need a totally new attitude toward crime and criminals in our corruptible and increasingly corrupted society’ (p. 137). Luckily however, ‘The work ethic is alive and well, and it is criminal’ (p. 132). Finally, it’s no good saying that we are all a bit too nice to let this happen, ‘The liberals can bleat all they like, but the chasm is opening up between the information rich and the information poor’ (p. 209). The only solution is to ‘be a barbarian not a victim’ (p. 228), and to move,
P. Powell / Journal of Strategic Information Systems 8 (1999) 449–451
451
‘Consequently, the new barbarians must escape to safer communities where the illumination of the Enlightenment still shines’ (p. 230). The ‘Enlightenment can only continue in a first world held together by information technology’ (p. 233). And where to go? ‘Thankfully, US society is totally free of that most insidious virus, the corrosive sentimental socialism that has terminally corrupted Europe’ (p. 241). ‘Aligning themselves with other globally distributed cosmopolitan smart regions, the escapees will join the enlightened first world under US leadership’ (p. 241). ‘By now it will be clear that I have a somewhat peculiar notion of the workings (or otherwise) of modern Western society … but is it a foolish notion?’ (p. 151). ‘Surely only a lunatic would question the morality of democracy? But yesterday’s lunacy may be tomorrow’s sanity’ (p. 157). It may not be, of course. It is difficult to sum up this text. Indeed, it is more difficult to put oneself in the place of someone not knowing the author coming upon this text. In this book, Angell sets out to provoke, to worry, and to shock. I know that some of this is written with a wry smile but it remains to be seen whether most readers will appreciate that. At face value this book is an interesting read but in the wrong hands could prove to be a very potent erroneous rallying cry. P. Powell School of Management, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK
Book Review The New Barbarian Manifesto Ian Angell, Kogan Page, 2000, ISBN 0-7494-3151-2 The New Barbarian Manifesto is a quick canter through the near future. It is a future in which the talented information-rich, the ‘new barbarians’, live in revived city states, their bank accounts held securely off-planet, with the information poor, at best, looking on in envy and, at worst, storming the barricades. It seems almost a return to ancient Rome with a small set of ‘chosen ones’ living in fine style and a vast underclass serving or attempting to destroy them. It is an age in which morals and the fabric of society are very different from the present. Yet, this future is at most a generation or two away and maybe here in as few as 20 years. We need to prepare ourselves now if we are going to be within not without. For most it will be a ‘new dark age’ (p. 116) but for the few it will be the ‘Age of Aquarius’ (p. 120). Indeed, this future ‘is already happening in the United States of America’ (p. 123). As in time immemorial, when one wants information on something new and obscure, one immediately turns to the web. Angell looks at the origins of cyberspace and the Internet and if we do a search on Barbarians on the web we do get some clues as to the real (or old) barbarians and what life may be like under the new ones. There are no new barbarians on the web but a search does give you a cricket club, an ad hoc rugby team, a site dedicated to a group called the Cult, and one for Staffordshire Terrier fanciers. But most promising, and the one that sheds some light on the new barbarians starts, ‘Barbarian Kings is a simulation of the Red Age of political and military turmoil on the island continent of Castafon situated in the northern quadrant of the Fira Ocean on the planet Hypastia. This is a world where magic works (sometimes), and men and near-men are as treacherous and as territorial as anywhere in the Universes’. That seems to just about sum it up. However, we can also get a more learned description of some earlier Barbarians that also sheds some light on this text, ‘That Odoacer sent Roman senators to plead his case in Constantinople shows that the rise of barbarian kings did not destroy Roman social structures in the western provinces. Although there was great suffering in the fifth century, in most places the framework of provincial society survived. The very existence of “barbarian kingdoms” depended upon that fact. The barbarians were a tiny minority in most of the areas where they settled. The migrating barbarians had not been entire societies in motion. Rather, they had been mercenary armies, of mixed ethnic origins, looking for a home: a prosperous area whose population could support a resident army’. So, perhaps the old barbarians were not that bad after all. 0963-8687/99/$ - see front matter 䉷 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S0963-868 7(00)00032-9
450
P. Powell / Journal of Strategic Information Systems 8 (1999) 449–451
As I started to read The New Barbarian Manifesto, it felt as if Ayn Rand had come to life and had started writing again. Sure enough she does pop up by page 170 and is a clear influence on some of the work here, Ayn Rand’s prediction of social and economic collapse has started — 50 years late, but it has started (p. 229). In addition to Ayn Rand, Alvin Toffler seems also to have helped form the manifesto and he crops up from time to time. Angell argues that the Machine Age is over and the Information Age has begun — and the latter is a great discontinuity from the former, ‘the utopia promised by science and technology has turned into a nightmare for the “Common Man”’ (p. 2). Unfortunately, ‘The few remaining optimists are deluding themselves’ (p. 22). So, what will this new world look like? ‘In the future I am predicting, information technology will wash away the state-drawn barriers drawn up to confine the new barbarian “economic mercenary”, the uniquely skilled entrepreneur and individualist’ (p. 193). It is a world in which ‘Mrs. Helmsley was right. Soon it will only be the little people who pay taxes’ (p. 25) and politicians’ ‘myth of control is laid bare’ (p. 25). ‘The successful commercial enterprise of the future will be truly global. It will relocate to where the profit is greatest and the regulation least’ (p. 27). This move reflects, ‘The painful lesson is that the taxes designed for the Machine Age cannot be collected on products from the Information Age’ (p. 34). In this new society, ‘To succeed, leadership must be strong in its striving, and ruthless’ (p. 99). Low taxes will be king, ‘Because of the need to entice global companies for the investment and employment they bring, not only will state be pitted against state but also area will compete against area, town against town, even suburb against suburb’ (p. 110). The Information Age encompasses people involved in symbolic–analytic services, in-person services and routine production services. Symbolic analysts are business gurus, sports stars, pop singers etc. Unfortunately, university professors are in the second category. And quite right too — it’s our fault, Angell sees universities as part of the problem, ‘I find myself forced to agree with the tidal wave of complaints from business indicating that the university as presently instituted is just not “delivering the goods”. Each group has a fixed reference point in time. For many, and I include the modern university in this, their sell-by date has well and truly passed’ (p. 76). Later, ‘There are very few European Universities that can independently develop the necessary will to support the global intellectual elite: they are mostly far to busy creating the ideal herd-animal for the state’ (p. 238). The new world will not be a pretty place, ‘I see the Internet creating consumers rather than producers; I see uncontrolled communication and arbitrary connection creating a world simmering with petty jealousies, resentments and imagined slights’ (p. 125). ‘I apologize for deliberately labouring this point here, but it is crucial to the thesis of this book: mass movements are from the now-defunct Machine Age’ (p. 24). The boundaries between what we now consider criminal and legitimate will blur, ‘Whatever happens, it is clear that new barbarians are going to need a totally new attitude toward crime and criminals in our corruptible and increasingly corrupted society’ (p. 137). Luckily however, ‘The work ethic is alive and well, and it is criminal’ (p. 132). Finally, it’s no good saying that we are all a bit too nice to let this happen, ‘The liberals can bleat all they like, but the chasm is opening up between the information rich and the information poor’ (p. 209). The only solution is to ‘be a barbarian not a victim’ (p. 228), and to move,
P. Powell / Journal of Strategic Information Systems 8 (1999) 449–451
451
‘Consequently, the new barbarians must escape to safer communities where the illumination of the Enlightenment still shines’ (p. 230). The ‘Enlightenment can only continue in a first world held together by information technology’ (p. 233). And where to go? ‘Thankfully, US society is totally free of that most insidious virus, the corrosive sentimental socialism that has terminally corrupted Europe’ (p. 241). ‘Aligning themselves with other globally distributed cosmopolitan smart regions, the escapees will join the enlightened first world under US leadership’ (p. 241). ‘By now it will be clear that I have a somewhat peculiar notion of the workings (or otherwise) of modern Western society … but is it a foolish notion?’ (p. 151). ‘Surely only a lunatic would question the morality of democracy? But yesterday’s lunacy may be tomorrow’s sanity’ (p. 157). It may not be, of course. It is difficult to sum up this text. Indeed, it is more difficult to put oneself in the place of someone not knowing the author coming upon this text. In this book, Angell sets out to provoke, to worry, and to shock. I know that some of this is written with a wry smile but it remains to be seen whether most readers will appreciate that. At face value this book is an interesting read but in the wrong hands could prove to be a very potent erroneous rallying cry. P. Powell School of Management, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK