Economics of scandals

Importance of Social Media

Year 2018 offers some new economic prospects and at the same time old political uncertainties. The fourth industrial revolution and robust global economic growth do not bring about real systemic changes. The period of peace and prosperity, integration and openness replaces the world of fragmentation and rising conflicts. The management of the fragmented world is increasingly in the hands of autocratic regimes and unpredictable leaders... The world order is steadily falling apart, and in 2018, we are trying to convince us that this is a sustainable new norm. Political crises this year will shape the fate of a possible new financial breakdown. Risks are bigger than we think and want. source:Mladina(translated by me)

No one is immune to scandalous news. They do not call our attention only on social networks, but they also follow us on the road, screaming at us with shiny jumbo billboards, screens over post boxes, in front of our bus stop or even on the bus ... When they try to capture our attention with the most impacted title and footage, they work as commercials. More or less.

bus ad

They are designed in such a way that it is impossible to avoid the view of them - that with their madness they awaken our curiosity and attract us to the click. And, each of us, when reviewing his "search history", would probably found that he had repeatedly clicked on more screaming, heartbreaking titles among the news. And even if such campaigns succeed a miraculous breakthrough in the imagination of the masses, they themselves rarely lead to political change.

It's not that people are necessarily impatient, but that outburst is not a sustained emotion. It's impossible to live with compressed fists all the time. In reality, we all have our own problems, annoyance and "to-do" stuff in our lives.

When activists try to make a major step towards changing the world, they often find, their media attention been lost long time ago.

In the economy of outrage, we could raise the value of some agenda only for a few days. Perhaps some of us have been specially shaken by the topic and we have remained watchful for a long time, while struggling with the question "What to do?". Apart from signing a petition or participating in a campaign, outbursts leave very little space for the concrete involvement of a wider crowd.

source

Tourists in India are all beginning to be scandalized about how wealthy Indians can walk past all the poor, the criminals, the beggars and the patients lying on the sidewalks in front of their houses, but in one week we all do the same. The tolerance for the still painful suffering of the other is automatically increased and the outrage is withdrawn by the pragmatism that you need to maintain your everyday life. More about that in Economist-the gap between rich and poor

Media campaigns and angry voices are of course necessary to activate any political change, and the fact that people still feel emotionally responsible for the injustices around us is not negligible. The question for each movement remains: How to survive beyond the media? We can be sure that with each and every topic the outrage will sooner or later decline and that the changes will not only happen because angry Facebook users shared our links for a week.

Not the right way to find the truth

Fact is, the power structures that have been establishing for decades, can live through a bad media day, without any problem. What they can not survive is a constant and massive opposition to their policies on the ground.

Of course, I have strong organizations in mind. History is repeatedly served by us with the same pattern - not those who for a short time wake up the moral sense of the spectators, but those who build their own power.

I guess you all saw documentaries about people on the street in USA after Vietnam war. These moments were, of course, important, but would not change anything if there had not been massive movements before and after that, which brought opposition to war and racism into the everyday lives of all Americans. If the authorities wanted people to learn to live with the politics of violence and exploitation, they were taught by the opposite: how to resist such a vision of the world. No moral awakening has been and will not be - there are only people who can win and change the criteria of what is moral.

These are lessons that are still relevant for today's challenges. To get into the world of instant shocking news without sacrificing battles in the long run. Do not build your agenda on media hype and outrage, but in the street. Work with people, even when the reports are silent.