The world now changes at chaotic speeds. Moreover the changes are non-linear. The year before is not a portend of the trends in the current year. Yet we are caught in an addiction to linear analysis. Why? Because once the trends were controlled by the very people in a position of linear power to control them. The linear structure of control over information and ideas was also the way the world was kept linear.

It seemed till just yesterday that power of the ‘Gatekeepers’ was supreme, whether in Government, Politics, Entertainment etc. The Power of Linearity.

Suddenly the power has shifted to circularity where information is democratic and opinion polls are no longer the ‘gatekept’ preserve of ‘information or news controllers’. People talk and communicate amongst themselves. At unimaginable speeds.

At unimaginable distances. In unimaginable quantities. Where ideas are born and die even before you can catch them. Where only ideas that truly catch the imagination of the people, the heart of the people, the fundamental needs and desires of the people come forth and turn from a slight wave in the ocean to a tsunami.

And before you are aware of it, before you can catch it, the tsunami is a revolution.

Like the Arab Spring.

We have a word for it in Hindu Mythology. Manthan. The Great Churning. Even though it referred to (some say) the formations and continuing play of the Universe, The Milky Way, the facilitation of sharing of massive amounts of information and ‘thought processes’ expressed on massive platforms, give rise to new galaxies of events that are completely non linear, chaotic and express the true and ultimate meaning of democracy… a continuing democracy, fluid and completely transparent in its expression.

Scary? Of course. Chaos to our linear minds is scary. Change and the unknown is scary.  But do we have a choice?

The battle will now be between linearity and chaos. The gatekeepers and most of us will fight for a semblance of linearity for that is how we understand the world. While those that have nothing to lose in the constructed oppression of linearity, will revel in hitting back at any linear system through the chaos of circularity.

What will happen in the future?

Facebook too, addicted as it is now to linearity, through old world paradigm like transactions with its $100billion valuation, has shifted from circularity and chaos to linearity and gatekeeping.  So the battle is also happening within the internet world too.  But Facebook understands the only option it has is to keep expanding, or the great Manthan will swallow its individuality and regurgitate it and throw it out in forms yet unknown to itself.  Or it will, like our Sun, expand to a point where it collapses under its own gravity, gobbled by another expanding Star – another tsunami idea.

The Universe is the best analogy to the Internet. If we understand that passage of time is a mere perception. History is chaotic, sudden, unpredictable and ever changing. Yet at the points of history in the old world we perceived a linearity, which became our reality and even an addiction. Now Internet has made that change observable, constant, touchable and perceptible. Almost instant. Like observing the seed turn into a flower in speeded up motion. And the death of the same flower in seconds.

Lets forgive ourselves for sitting back for a few moments and go ‘Phew!’  But then move forward with a new sense of democratic adventure, a step in the unknown, trusting that in the chaos of the Manthan, in the colliding of galaxies there is purpose.

And my quest, along with others, is that in this great Manthan, the ultimate events that occur are for the good of society. That ultimately in the balance between the good and the bad, the hate and the compassion, the Asuras and the Devas, the good and compassionate will emerge.

Quite honestly? Everything points to that. It seems that we will do better without the gatekeepers controlling our lives for their own benefit.

Image Source: [http://www.flickr.com/photos/zooboing/4361038612/]