Product Description

IT was once welcomed as a liberator and genie that would free us from enslavement to mundane chores and the daily grind. Instead, Ian Angell says it is breeding a new society of `barbarians` in which the winner takes all. He claims that the world after the information revolution will be one in which a gifted few control corporations that move factories around the planet in search of the lowest wages -- it is already happening, as prisoners, serving life sentences in the US operate telesales services for major American Airlines. Angell`s view is apocalyptic -- poverty for the many and self-governing opulence for the elite few. These privileged few, who can afford to be stateless, will not have to pay taxes in any state. Society will split into the elite and the masses. Society as we know it will break down. Only those with the knowledge and the power to guide the information revolution will prosper, leaving the manual labor to stateless production workers or more efficient robots.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #802282 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review

From the Publisher
Ian Angell is Professor of Information Systems at the London School of Economics. A controversial figure, he already attracts a great deal of media attention for his radical views.

About the Author

Customer Reviews

A provocative view of the Dark Side of the New Economy
Angell's work is really very good, even if the author is sometimes too heavy handed. I saw him on the BBC and he admitted that his book was aimed at stirring the pot. He does that, no doubt. Rather than the glib views of how IT will change our world, Angell suggests that IT and technological change may well have some very serious and unforeseen consequences. It is a must read for all those who blithely toss around the term e-commerce. Read this and get another view!

The business-end of a crowbar
Ever see the film "Falling Down" with Michael Douglas? Well, after a long and frustrating struggle with rank-and-file academics and bureaucrats, Ian has finally taken an intellectual crowbar to post-war socialist greenhouse.

This is not a pretty book; it is slash and burn. It represents the blinding rage of a generation who suffered in silence as Winston Smith and Joseph K. were digested by early virulent strains of political correctness. So, beware, this book is deeply offensive to lawyers and politicians and all the other anti-conceptual drones who have nested in the post-war socialist paradigm.

What gives this book its power is the changing nature of the global political economy. Here we are dealing with facts - as hard and cold as the steel rails on which the Industrial Revolution was built. Remember those poor sods who attended the Congress of Vienna in 1815? What? The end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire? Haw, haw, haw. Steam engines powering ships? Hee, hee, hee. A new economy? Ho, ho, ho. The collapse of the Russian, French, and British empires? Tears of laughter. Airplanes? Oh, please no more!

I myself do not necessarily agree with all Ian's arguments, but there is no doubt that he has drawn a true note from his violin. I do believe that Rome will indeed burn again. What will rise from the ashes is what Ian seeks to explore.

Academic derivative work that reads like a potboiler!
This is a very cool book because the synthesis is done by a academian who writes like a potboiler novelist! The paragraphs are shock full of references to deep philosophical and academic treatises, but done in an entertaining manner. Every paragraph is like poetry. Excellent derivative work.

In a nutshell, the author is taking a theme first exposed by Alvin Toffler "Future Shock" "Third Wave" and developing it further to synthesize the way the world's economies have performed in the last 20 years.

Outstanding! Don't be put off by the seeming "facist" or "harsh" tone of some of this writing--the author is tell you how it is, not how it should be--hence the term "barbarian" in the title. The old guard will attempt to smooth over raw, naked capitalism but in the opinion of the author it will be a losing battle (I'm not so sure, since I believe most old people, having been raised by the Welfare State, will never go quietly, so it will take another generation or two to renounce the Nanny Welfare State.

I give it four stars not five because the opinions are thrown out without much argument or development. It is a derivative work where you have to understand some background first. So it's not really a beginner's book.