Politicians go global
As the UK heads towards another national poll on Thursday something interesting is happening on the Twittersphere. The debate, in this case over islamic terrorism, has gone properly global.
In the pre-internet days we used to joke about the phrase “going global” — it used to be something you had to slip into a dinner party conversation without anyone noticing to get points — “I think Jo Malone will go global” was once an outright winner. :)
What we mean by “going global” is that something has passed the tipping point, gone beyond the inner core and reached the influential majority.
Now going global is not just for business and entertainment — it’s also for politics.
Issues like Wahhabi terrorism, superbugs like MDR-TB, and digital communications regulation cannot be dealt with by nation states alone.
How does the crowd respond? The same way it always does — by looking for leaders.
The difference is that now, with global media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and to a certain extent, the BBC, the leaders aren’t necessary the ones we’re “meant to have”, we’re not restricted to the choice of names on a ballot paper, we can now find those leaders ourselves.
While the mechanics of politics itself is still tied to national parliaments, the rhetoric has now “gone global”. The mechanics will catch up in time, it always does.
When Donald Trump renews his feud with London Mayor he doesn’t want to tame wahabbist jihadis in America — he wants to do it in London too. He doesn’t want his thinking and his policies just implemented in the US, he wants them implemented in the UK too.
Now this is a departure from the typical response of a foreign politician to a national event. Normal behaviour is to condemn the attack and offer prayers, good wishes and support:
Instead Trump is starting a fight. This is a political fight. It’s savage and effective. He deals in perception not truth — he is a master of the mob.
And he’s not alone. It’s not just the politicians like him who’ve spotted the opportunity — it’s the diplomatic arms of countries themselves. As an example, see Ukraine and Russia’s diplomatic spat played out in the meme language of Twitter and The Simpsons last week (Diplomacy evolves for the Twitter age).
The media is having its own little fight too — look at the Telegraph slamming into the New York Times for using the word “reeling” to describe the state of London following the latest attack:
While I dislike the Donald’s politics, I welcome the change.
It’s time our politics woke up and allowed debates about global threats (and opportunities) to go global.
It’s interesting that Twitter, with its soundbite-friendly viral mechanic, is the medium of choice. For now.
And who should lead the way but the Donald? The king of Twitter is clearly a man who used his television celebrity and caustic personality to get elected US president.
So, now politics, parties and papers have a global audience — now all we need are some global politicians who actually think straight to lead us.
Angela Merkel and Xi Jinping aren’t on Twitter so I’ll start with a shout out to JK Rowling:
