The Poor Masses, and Their Cell Phones

PLATO AND JAMES MADISON, both in the business of designing governments, faced the same, eternal question: how do you design a democracy, any form of government which gives power to the people, so that the poor can't gang up on the rich, and take their money? There are two ways, in general. One is to create economic equality while creating democracy, the other requires barriers between the poor masses and true political power; in other words, create a representative democracy rather than a direct one; in other words, don't create a democracy at all. That's what the American founding fathers did; they designed a democracy intended to keep real power out of the hands of the teeming poor masses. this is vitally important, because the poor will not always be among you, they will always greatly outnumber you, if you are wealthy. And, of course, we all know the chaos of mob rule: given have the chance, the masses would actually participate in politics and government, and make a mess of everything. but now there's a new wrinkle; social media. Computers, the internet, facebook. In america, you see homeless people with cell phones, incredibly enough. Around the world, many poor people have cell phones with internet access, though, of course, many do not. Beware the ones who do. they have the potential to communicate, organize, and raise quite a stink. Many countries, including Arab countries, the United States, Ukraine, and Hong Kong, have very recently witnessed mass demonstrations of political and economic protest, organized on social media. there is the promise of more to come, as the global economy becomes daily more unequal, less sustainable, less sane. Beware the teeming masses, and their cell phones.