P. S.: Post Scriptum

A fast note to point out that Phil Edwards took the ball and translated the previous post. The post was an answer to a post from my father, and as such in Italian.

Phil uses the post as his launch pad for a very interesting one on how he sees the long tail having effect on the society and how he sees this not happening. I don’t think I agree fully on what Phil writes, but I need some time to gather my ideas, and answer properly.

What follows is Phil translation of my post. The translation is incomplete, but correct and faithful to the original spirit (although I am not convinced I would translate classe dirigente as ruling class), as such I am happy to copy it here.

I don’t believe that the ruling class has vanished. I believe that it has simply been transformed – just as the world itself is being continually transformed from day to day. Decades ago, our world was simpler – more homogeneous, less diverse. If you followed a martial art, it would be judo or karate. A game? Chess. A religion? Christian, Jewish, perhaps Muslim at the outside.
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on the Net, via Google (and wikipedia), you can find the specific branch of the specific religious tradition which best meets your needs. … And this is not true only of religions, but of everything: interests, political groups, passions, games, ways of life.
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Now, every one of these groups has its own implicit hierarchy. … And everyone is a member of more than one group. And in every group you listen to some people, and what you say influences other people.
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[In every area of my life] I have leaders: people I trust; people who I admire and learn from. But they’re not the same people as your leaders. Not only that, but there are other people who come to me to learn (worse luck for them!), in some fields more than in others. The process of diversification tends towards having as many groups as people – and every one of us, of necessity, becomes the small-scale leader of a small-scale group, scattered around the world.
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This whole process mirrors what’s happening in the economy, where a market consisting of niches is growing explosively … The key phrase is Long Tail.
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So I don’t believe that the ruling class is vanishing, but that we’re seeing a gradual diversification of interests, which leads to the diversification of the ruling class – accompanied by the redefinition and contraction [ridimensionamento] of the role of traditional leaders.

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