Dawn of Digital : Beginning of Corporate State and end of Nation State
will 21st century make Nation state irrelevant?
If 18 and 19th century were all about the advent of the Nation-state when many new nations were created on different concepts to rule over mankind, 21st Century seems to be the emergence of the corporate state.
The corporate state is the dream of Machiavelli's era. It is flush with cash, it is faceless, and has 100s of arms spread around the world. In a way, it plays chess in 5 dimensions - customers in one country, tax regime in another while domiciled in some other.
It has CSR arm which gets right photos clicked, it owns newspapers which peddle stories with precisions and it owns what needs to be owned without too much fuss and the best part is, that it is not open to public scrutiny as everything is hidden under layers of structures, dummy ownership and whatnot. In a way, it has got all the rights and privileges but none of the responsibilities and accountability as it is not answerable to anyone. With market capitalisation bigger than the GDP of many countries, it is more powerful, more subtle and more deadly than East India company which wreaked havoc on the world.
It is not that fight between corporates and the nation-state is new. It started on the day the first corporation was born in 1599 AD in England. Its name was East India company which created havoc around the world through slavery, organised crime and created wealth for the western world through plunder and loot. However, despite all the power and might of the East India Company, the state retained its supremacy.
British Government took over the matters of East India Company, once things became too violent and barbaric even for the taste of English and the Nation-state prevailed over the corporate state. However, power tussle continued between the nation-state and corporate state and got intensified with the formation of multinational companies ie MNCs where MNCs lobbied with multiple governments and even got into politics. However, the nation-state through its power of police, military, currency and censorship managed to remain far more powerful and superior to a corporate. In the physical world, the dices were always in favour of the nation-state. As Nietzsche said, might is right and Nation state has all the might. The nation-state flexed its might through control on mind and matter.
Of all living organisms, humans thrive on mind and matter (material goods). The human mind has driven civilisation through innovation, disruption and creativity. From the ancient time of taam-patra to the age of Gutenberg, to the world dominated by Google, creative expression has seen many forms and format but what has remained constant is the ability of creative form to create revolutions.
Authors, visionaries through their words, have changed the history of the world for good or bad. Hence the relation of state with the creative fraternity has always remained complex. Many have been hanged, exiled or put in jails for the ideas and thoughts. Hence modern democratic societies have primed freedom of expression as one of the main drivers of modern democratic values. First amendment at US Constitution has remained a key hallmark about the freedom, it has provided to its citizens and maintaining an open and progressive society. But behind all this commitment to freedom of expression, the nation-state and the powers that managed it remained very thoughtful of all creative movement and retained its control through news industry, a well-oiled education system, which focused on compliance as well as through various acts of censorship under the camouflage of national security.
If creativity has given soul to humans, matter or rather material goods gave humans the meaning of existence. Probably only species in the world, that worry about collecting material goods not only for itself even for future generations. This obsession for good is driven by the exchange mechanism ie money. Of all the inventions from fire to the wheel, the invention of money as a medium of exchange has been the most potent invention by humankind. Today it is impossible to imagine life without the existence of this medium of exchange. The flow of money controls everything be it trade, wealth or maintenance of armies and in that sense even existence of the nation-state. Without money, the state can manage neither security as it can not maintain armed people aka police/military to handle internal and external threats, nor can manage governance and probably won't even exist. Hence, nothing can exist without money and in a sense its money, not the king or government that has all the power.
Hence the nation-state is quite sensitive to the flow of money as well as the creation of money. Since time immemorial, Gold was the main medium of exchange and its control, controlled the fate of men, tribe or the nation. The modern nation-state with its invention of fiat money got rid of its dependence on gold and made itself the owner of its fate as it could print money and create value at its own whims and fancies. The ability to print money gave governments or rather its central banks unimaginable power over the fate of its subjects. Hence the governments through central banks and legal system, maintain very tight control on the creation, circulation and value of its money. Wide fluctuations in the value of money can lead to disasters with governments thrown out of power in no time. Hence even a most benevolent and liberal state does not allow any non-state actor to have any influence on the creation, circulation and value of its money(currency).
So, the nation-state controlled its population and managed its affair through control on human mind ie creativity and flow of money. The unlimited supply of money created a golden bull run for the governments and its elites in 9th and 20th century. For the majority of elites/governments, this era remained the most peaceful and prosperous era in the history of humankind.
And then the transformation to the digital world began.
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