I like to joke with my Facebook friends that future generations will not appreciate the catastrophe that is the Trump presidency until somebody makes a musical of it. Something like a cross between Phantom of the Opera and Evita. People shouldn't forget that America is a very advanced nation, and the boldest experiment in democracy since the Magna Carta. Cass Sunstein in "#republic" points the spotlight on a very real threat to the American Republic: the tendency of communications services to fragment the audience to the point where literally nobody is talking -- or more importantly -- listening to one another.

And Sunstein puts it so aptly, the continuity of American self-government will have less to do with "the decisions of its founders much less on the world of texts and authorities and ancestors than in the active participation and commitments of its citizens."

There is so much BS in American letters about the founding tenents of the Republic and so little compromise on the floor of the House of Representatives or the Senate. And the populace lets their leaders get away with it. Nothing, it seems, is more important in American society today than winning at all costs.

People live in the enclaves of their electronic worlds. They live and die by free speech, where speech is neither free nor without consequences. Just look at the appalling power of their firearms lobby.

Freedoms devoid of responsibilities.

The responsibility to take care of the citizenry.

The responsibility to care for the planet.

The responsibility to participate as a good citizen on the world stage.

The responsibility to address historical grievances.

This book is good learned debate even as people kvetch about the"eastern elites." Too much Trumpism debases and demeans learned debate. America has such terrific minds at work. Well, if they pack up and leave out of frustration, I hope they come to Canada.

We could use them. ( )

Cass Sunstein è stato uno dei collaboratori dell’amministrazione Obama e in questo solido testo porta la sua esperienza e le sue competenze. Il lavoro è tipicamente di stampo americano, linguaggio semplice, esperienze e studi vengono declinati in continuazione ma con leggerezza, senza il poderoso impianto bibliografico tipico dei nostri saggisti. Le citazioni leggere danno qualche problema negli approfondimenti, ma rendono più scorrevole la lettura. Sunstein affronta praticamente gran parte degli aspetti connessi ai rischi e alle opportunità della nuova comunicazione digitale, approfondendo i singoli aspetti in maniera multo puntuale. Dalle camere chiuse alla forza degli odiatori seriali, l’autore fornisce sempre una chiave di lettura interessante circa fenomeni complessi. Il vero punto è che questo è un libro all’apparenza semplice, ma molto complesso che non va letto, ma studiato per comprendere bene le varie sfaccettature nascoste dietro le cose che appaiono scontate. Ad esempio, il ragionamento attorno al ruolo dello Stato, con la duplice funzione di regolatore delle dinamiche private o di attore nella definizione di politiche pubbliche di sostegno richiede senza dubbio qualche approfondimento. Comunque si tratta di un testo importante per chi studia questo settore. ( )

I was very disappointed in this book. Its main point is that an increasing reliance on social media as a primary news source has led to a decrease in the diversity of societal information which citizens are exposed to. Views and opinions become more polarized and extreme when they are circulated within like-minded groups which shut out opposing perspectives. A myopic citizenry is not a good thing for democracy. I find this topic interesting and I was eager to see what solutions the author might propose for improving the situation.

The answer is that he doesn't have much to propose. He spends the first few chapters laying out the nature of the problem in an adequate but long-winded manner. He discusses academic research on how viewpoints are formed and changed in closed group settings both online and offline. The data he reports is not particularly informative or surprising, but it at least establishes a factual baseline for the main thesis of the book. After this over-extended 150 page presentation of a simple problem, the author moves on to peripheral topics such as government regulation and free speech. He doesn't have anything original to say here, either, and I was starting to wonder if he's ever going to get to the point.

At the end he finally gets to his proposals. They contain no stroke of genius but are interesting enough to be published, I suppose. However, all in all I did not understand why anyone would take the trouble of writing such a long book just to present a few simple suggestions for how to improve social media - a more focused writer could have fit all of this into a blog post. So I do not recommend this book.

If you read this book along with Manin "Principes" and Keese "Silicon Germany", as I did, you can actually see a convergence of themes that are relevant not just to democracy and its implementation, but also to any social and business change in this early stages of the XXI century.

There is a blurring line between being a citizen and being a consumer, and actually our right to vote was extended by social media to a right to influence decision-making not only by politicians, but also by businesses, at a faster pace than before.

Did we overcome Bernays' "Propaganda" and Packard's "Hidden Persuaders"?

The most interesting part of this book, weak on the historical side of democracy (better Manin on that side, even on USA democracy) is the discussion of how (without quoting either of them) Bernays and Packard are replaced by... ourselves, courtesy of algorithms that generate a "tunnel vision".

Yes, there is still confusion about the role of citizens when they are consumers and citizens when they are voters- but, sadly, it seems that we are acquiring more influence on companies while being treated more like consumers when it is time to vote.

Food for thought both in politics and business...

[Review released on 2018-05-28] ( )