I think when people first thought about this information revolution, they funded it. I think we thought it was going to usher in this great flourishing of human knowledge. We realized with the Arab Spring that it allowed networks of individuals to coordinate and find alternatives. The tsunami has done is stripped them naked. They still do know a great deal, but they are wrong a lot.
Author Martin Gurri, Visiting Fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center, talks about his book The Revolt of the Public with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Gurri argues that a digital tsunami--the increase in information that the web provides--has destabilized authority and many institutions. He talks about the amorphous nature of recent populist protest movements around the world and where we might be headed politically and culturally.