Customer Reviews

The Twilight of Sovereignty : How the Information Revolution Is Transforming Our World

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The basic premise of this sophisticated book is that you can't hold back progress and in the author's mind, progress is information. I was extremely impressed with how many of his predictions of the future have actually come true. A visionary is good way to describe him. I was not aware of his work with Citicorp but it would be interesting to hear what he would have predicted for the financial services world. He barely talks about it in the book. Too many predictions to mention but you will be impressed at his track record. In summary, because of the age of this book many of his predictions have already happened so you really can't capitalize on many of the ideas. However, it's a short read and a very interesting one at that.

In "The Twilight Of Sovereignty", the late Walter Wriston, former Chairman of Citicorp spoke to the positive transformative effects of information technology and the subsequent rise of transparency and democracy through globalization. Although this book was written in 1992, just after the collapse of the Soviet Union, his commentary about the spread of modern communications and how better communications will enable the forces of globalism to erode the power of local tyrannies, empower individuals and promote democracy was prescient. His comments predate those of Walter Russell Mead in "Power Terror War And Peace" by several years, but are clearly in agreement. In `Twilight" Wriston's view that the so-called managerial class has outlived its usefulness as a communications hierarchy and is now superfluous or even destructive to operational efficiency is a clear example of what Mead calls the Millennial Capitalist replacement of the Fordist managerial state. Wriston also set the stage for Thomas Barnett's call for transparency and globalism as a means to fight terrorism in Barnett's recent book, "The Pentagon's New Map". In Wriston's view "the law of technology is the law of convergence" and "as information technology brings the news of how others live, the pressure for freedom will be irresistible". This is a more eloquent if a less detailed discussion than Barnett's chapter entitled `Mind the Gap', but the train of thought is essentially the same. This book is more a survey than the intensive development of the ideas that Wriston proposed, but it may be that he just assumed a degree of literacy that is no longer general. His historical references include Max Weber, whose theory of state has sovereignty emerging from the exclusive use of legitimate violence, and Frederick Hayek, whose individual choice based market solutions establish him as the intellectual heir of Adam Smith. Wriston also included modern commentators like Carver Mead and George Gilder who rejoice in the ever- accelerating pace of technological change. Wriston said that change is a constant in the global marketplace and that "change is what Americans deal with best." Although somewhat dated, I recommend this book as a concise general preview of the technological globalist argument from one of its original proponents.

This book is not worth half the postage rate. Written by an elite banker out of touch with most of humanity, this book amounts to an early version of Tom Friendman's work on globalization, written for 3rd graders. His grasp of history is juvenile, based on naive (or mendacious) Cold War political assumptions, and white-washes the role of the U.S. government and elites in building our new global reality. The goal of the book is basically to erode the public's "faith" in a sovereign nation-state, because information technology passes easily across borders. He uses such examples, "The fax machine has become, in effect, the pamphleteer of the late twentieth century." What would be more interesting, instead of predictable attempts at U.S. triumphalism over the Soviet menace, would be more insight into how big bankers like himself rushed into Russia during the 1990's and helped destroy any semblance of an emergent democratic system and brought thugs like Putin into power. This book offers nothing, other than an insight into the intellectual poverty (or deceitfulness) of the elite central banker class and seems to be written for a quasi-literate audience. I'd like my time and money back...very, very disappointing. A real dud.

When a book has an endorsement from Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon, this should immediately put up red flags in one's mind as to where this book is headed. The author is an elite globalist who is dramatically in love with the coming New World Order. He tries to persuade the reader to believe that this new information age is going to provide new found liberty to the masses under repressive regimes. That corporations( formerly American) becoming multi-national is a positive aspect for the work force, and that loss of a country's national sovereignty will provide a new power for the masses. This book was written in 1992. Can anyone honestly say that government has lost control over its people? In fact the opposite is occuring. Can one say a company like Boeing which used to provide well paying jobs for Americans, now being multi-national, a smaller percentage of their workforce being American is a good thing? Can anyone say proudly," I am a citzen of the world. I will be glad to serve and protect all nations of the world, and will defend her till my dying day?" Make no mistake. This is a fool's paradise. The author believes this system is ideal. Why? Because he made a lot of money working for Citicorp, handling all of the funds from these multi-national companies; while the average American worker is losing his or her job.

I was also amused at the author's pretentious claim that we shouldn't base our economy by the GNP anymore. This due to the fact that we are a wealthy nation now not by what we manufacture, but by the imagination and ideas that we have in our minds to improve production. I can just see the U.S. telling China not to worry about our trillion dollar debt, because we are not really poor, we are actually rich because of our innovation. This is absurd!

As I was reading this book words the author was using jumped out at me. He refers to words as we, us, ourselves. "In this world we are building." Who uses a phrase like that unless you yourself are part of the establishment creating this monster! He uses key words and phrases such as imagination,knowledge increasing, alliances being formed, and global cooperation which has been around since the begiining of time. Anyone familiar with the Bible knows all these things are associated with Bible prophecy. I am conviced that all of this relates to ancient history when the Tower of Babel was being built. Men were coming together in a common cause to build a name for themselves, in opposition to God. God scattered the people and confused their language. Modern man is trying to build the same system and "tower" again.

Don't be deceived. These elitists are promising freedom, while at the same time the shackles are being put on.
(While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption:)
2 Peter 2:19 KJV

Walter Wriston emvisions a world where corporations exercise totalitarian control. With control of financial markets, they are able to make or break nations who stand in the way of their eternal drive for greater and greater profits. Mr. Wriston asks us to trust that the corporations' managers are now more enlightened while he acknowledges that they have a brutal history. This book should be a wake up call to any one who is not a member of the stock-holding privileged class that our future lies in sweatshops unless we act now to stop the multi-national corporations.