Watching the Dubai controversy story unfold I couldn't help but think of Neil Stephenson's brilliant 1992 sci-fi-cyber novel Snowcrash -- which prophetically paints the post-modern world we now see of dying nation states, United Arab Emirates, and of course, Olympic dancers on ice skates.
OK, so maybe I kind of lost my mind watching the Dubai story emerge this week -- in various shades of xenophobia, port paranoia, and manic media.
For the uninitiated, here's a quick summary from our friends at Wikipedia
of the world of Snowcrash. You be the judge:
"The story takes place in a semi-America of the future, where corporatization, franchising, and the economy in general have spun wildly out of control. Snow Crash depicts the absence of a central powerful state; in its place, corporations have taken over the traditional roles of government, including dispute resolution and national defense. The United States has lost most of its territory in the wake of an economic collapse; the residual remains of the federal government are weak and inefficient and are used by Stephenson for comic relief.
Much of the territory lost by the government has been carved up into a huge number of sovereign enclaves, each run by its own big business franchise (such as "Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong" or the various residential burbclaves (suburb enclaves)). This arrangement bears a similarity to anarcho-capitalism, a theme Stephenson carries over to his next novel The Diamond Age. Hyperinflation has devalued the dollar to the extent that trillion dollar bills, Ed Meeses, are little regarded and the quadrillion dollar note, a Gipper, is the standard 'small' bill. For large transactions, people resort to alternative, non-hyperinflated currencies like yen or "Kongbucks" (the official currency of Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong)."
Sound familiar? Add a dash of Halliburton, some NSA wiretappage, a Orange County mega-church or two and we're well on the way to the world that Neil Stephenson described -- a world where the indy media crowd was often busy uploading and selling captured images to a newly merged CIA and Library of Congress to pay their bills and pay for their art. Who said we would never find a way to monetize content folks?
Want to understand politics and stay sane in this new era? I think you better read Snowcrash -- and while you are at it, go to the real library and check out William Manchester's brilliant profile of the history of arms dealing, The Arms of Krupp -- critical reading that puts Daniel Yergin's The Prize to shame.
And what about tomorrow? Stay tuned for all the weirdness you can muster -- because after Arianna exposes Tim Russert's latest fluff on NBC, it may soon be smart to surf over to the new Al Jazeera International to get the real facts from David Frost and David Marash.
Say hello, Uncle Enzo.