Member-only story
We Live In Dangerous, Confusing Times. Here’s How To Make Sense Of Them.
I still remember how, during the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine, everything took on an air of inevitability. It seemed that the forces of history were on our side and that the corrupt powers that had ruled the country were breathing their last gasps. Their old ideas and tired ways would have to succumb to the new wave of democracy.
Of course, none of that was true. Five years later, the old regime would be back in power. The reality was that the Orange Revolution wasn’t a revolution at all. It was a political revolt. True revolutions are rare. As Fareed Zakaria points out in his recent book, Age of Revolutions, they involve shifts in technology, economics and identity.
What is also likely to be true is that we are, today, in an era of global revolution in which things are changing on a fundamental level. Many of the changes underway are political, but to understand what’s going on we need to look at those three underlying forces. Revolutions tend to happen when they gather underneath the surface, fester and, eventually, explode.
The Spark Of Technology
The first technology that is often described as revolutionary was Gutenberg’s printing press, developed during the 1430s. It made it possible to disseminate information widely…
