Hararis‘ “Those who have the data, are in power“  contains the old wisdom “knowledge is power”. Harari rightly warns of data concentration in the hands of the few super-rich (and powerful) of the world. The networks of these powerful people mainly operate in hiding and we can assume that still today most of the most powerful individuals are widely unknown. This “power of the few over the many” (Humes’ paradox) is however currently challenged. The internet enables the many to network, reveal information and share it.

In 2020 the struggle of the powerful to preserve their power, but also their power fights against each other must have been particularly intense. Such power struggles are probably nothing new, however in 2020 suddenly these struggles became perceptible to the many suppressed. Certainly not all rich and powerful individuals are “evil”. We even have to assume that there are many dedicated to peace and freedom and willing to support the many suppressed. Without such powerful support, a liberation of people is hardly thinkable. However, it also bears the risk that the “many” remain passive and wait for a saviour.

Precondition, however, is that enough people “find their internal freedom”, meaning to overcome the urge to always seek external guidance. Certainly, no individual can be entirely free in a complex society.

Every-day-freedom before 2020 was good enough for most people regarding their (spurious?) freedom as being satisfying. The enormous global restrictions of 2020 may have made many people realise the existence of very powerful external suppression and restriction of their individual freedom. For many of the “many” this may have triggered a process of awakening.

Many of the “many” may have perceived and realized that they de facto are not free at all. One also feels a massive loss of trust in political leaders. I intentionally write “feels” as this loss of trust may not be fully conscious to many of the “many” or may even be denied. You simply do not want to acknowledge, that you cannot trust those in power, as this unsettles a deeply anchored basic trust (“Urvertrauen”).  Every human had a long period of dependency (childhood) and evolutionary mechanisms suggest that having confidence and trust in the authority of parents is a survival advantage. Without having authorities to trust in, we may feel even more lost and lonely.

Trusting others is not a bad character trait as such, but unfortunately it can be abused. To what extent abuse of power takes place in the world is more and more revealed, thanks to independent everybody-media. The abuse of power is pretty obvious. The most difficult step is from just seeing to consciously realizing (overcoming the unconscious denial of the seen abuse of power). This denial is massively fostered by a large system of supportive media houses in the hands of the powerful. Media are crucial, when it comes to enable democratic elements in decision making. Majority and truth are two different cups of tea, after all. Majorities can “create” truths and ideally democratic majority votes should in average be for the common good. This, however requires that the process of forming an opinion is based on independent information. The “mainstream media” and the few international news agencies are in the hands of a few big media cooperation. This allowed these cartels to guide and “manufacture” public opinion, worldwide. Formally, in Western countries, freedom of opinion and speech was granted. If people are allowed to express their opinion freely, it is important for the powerful to make sure that the opinion of the majority is reinforcing their power. The liberties of the internet challenges this opinion-making-cartel and thus the current power.

If those who have the data, are in power, data have to be distributed, if we want to distribute power. Decentralisation instead of Centralisation! Countless independant actors have emerged in the media world. Powerful global media companies that organize their propaganda power with international news agencies, certainly fight these competitors. However, it appears that the seek for truth of the many cannot be suppressed forever. The independent media world has become so widespread that the powerful will not manage to keep them at bay in the long run. The paste is out of the tube!

The landscape of the many small independent media creators, if viewed along criteria of evolutionary selection, is due to decentralized organization and its variety resilient or antifragile. The more it censors and suppresses the more the media-power-monster of the powerful rich becomes exposed. In contrast to large media companies and news agencies, the small independent actors have much more “skin in the game”. This makes the media system of the many small actors antifragile as a whole (even though the single individual carries a higher risk than for example the well-paid editor in a large media company). The damaging principle of the powerful and the powerful mainstream media lies in the fact that they wield power, without accountability for the damage caused. This power without accountability is more and more exposed by the many small independent media creators (136).

The traumatising developments that were forced upon us in 2020 may be painful and traumatizing, but give hope for more and more people to “wake up” to pursue autonomy and self-determination of their own personal sovereignty. With a critical mass of people being reached, the people will at least partly retrieve their pro forma declared role as the sovereign, instead of entirely submitting to the control of the few super-rich and international companies.

With regards to transhumanism, a worldwide discussion is required, on how the interface between the world of humans and machines should be shaped and how mankind can be protected from an irreversible and overly tight amalgamation. At the moment the interfaces are our senses (seeing, feeling, hearing). Once the interface worked via transplants, it would be withdrawn from self-control through the individual human. If human wants to remain free, the interface between man and machine must not be incorporated.

We are the many. We will make it!