People who have power can make others do something—or make them stop. It’s a simple concept, but the way it works is always changing.
Fluctuations in the global economy, politics, demographic patterns, and the Internet have completely restructured how power works in the 21st century.
The ever-growing wealth gap in the United States has fed the perception that those at the top stay there, at the expense of the rest of society. But at the same time as billionaire megaplayers such as Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have become more influential, “micropowers” have also been on the rise. These micropowers include groups like insurgents, startups, hackers, activists, and fringe political parties. Their numbers are small, but they carry a disproportionate amount of power.
Megaplayers are in no way powerless or obsolete, but they are more constrained in what they can do than they were in the past. That means their hold on power is increasingly less secure, at least for now.
For more insights into The End of Power, check out our latest Instaread.
