Interesting times

It is appearing as if the present difference of view over the rightness of American media corporations having the power to shut down any website they believe may contain a copyright infringement, and, apparently, to have anyone in the world associated with such a website arrested, may be a microcosm of a larger issue. It seems to me that the larger question is how large a difference the people who actually rule the world, in whatever respect, can sustain between the wishes of the rulers; a powerful and generally rich minority, and the average or consensus wishes of the ruled, the less powerful people who livein, but largely do not control, the world.

Clearly the level of difference they can sustain is significant, but the protests against Sopa and Pipa, not to mention the attacks on media websites in response to the closure of megaupload and the arrest of the owners of the site, seem to suggest that there is a finite limit.

At the is stage, the effect is minor, but it may be one of the early indications of a definite, if substantial, limit to what has been the growing power of the rulers over the ruled. Historians may see this more clearly in a century or so.

I'd prefer to see it all from a safe distance myself, and about 100 years might suffice.