The Middle Ages in the Internet Era: What is Happening Around Us?

An essay

Frans van der Reep[1]

The world is changing in many ways. Digital developments follow each other in quick succession and have an impact on many existing structures. The future may be uncertain, but we can still learn from what has happened in the past.

We usually know what we don’t want, but few of us know yet what we do want. Still, this is something we can only discover for ourselves, I think. Who are we? To what extent are we individuals and to what extent are we part of a collective? Remarkably, in these questions we can also find parallels with the Middle Ages.

In 2001 I wrote that as a consequence of the invention of the Internet, society has shown, and will continue to show, increasing medieval characteristics. As such, we will witness a revival of a ‘middle ages’ of sorts. I think this is an up-to-date metaphor, offering an interesting frame of reference, and an organizational context, in which we can place the current developments in order to obtain a clearer view of what is taking place. In contemporary society and in the business world, the individual and the internet when seen in relation to one another are experiencing an unprecedented development. It is almost as if the safe walls of our house have been suddenly lifted into the air, and we are now looking around at our new surroundings without their protection. Banks, newspapers, churches and even our governments are no longer what they used to be, with governments seeming to being led more and more by primitive ideologies with a bias on short-term results. Our world changes, our view of the world changes and, whether we want it or not, so does our identity. The world seems more susceptible to mass hypes and at the same time new connections and new combinations between ideas are arising at an astonishing speed. Here we have so-called “waving and weaving”, where the internet is a loom weaving together all sorts of new combinations while at the same time accelerating hypes (“waves”) as well (Shirky, 2008), (Ball, 2004).

With the invention of the Internet, factors like location, time and for a large part also cost are no longer influencing the process of information transfer to the same extent. Information becomes available to everyone, free of charge. This leads to changes in the power structures. During the last century the phrase “knowledge is power” helps to understand a social revolution, which emphasised transparency of government and access to education for everyone. Likewise it is interesting to see now how many parallels can be drawn now between medieval structures, organizations and methods of operation. This comparison offers businesses, education professionals and policy makers the ability to understand new developments more quickly and efficiently and to apply them in their own management strategies. It might also help overcome the paralysis that can be observed when new policies are developed, as it creates an easily understood reference point for the ongoing social change. Reference points, of course, help us understand where weare before taking that first step (Reep, The new challenge What guides You, understanding or ideology, 2013) (Reep, The new challenge What guides You, understanding or ideology, 2013).

The middle ages: the time of nobility, clergy and the bourgeoisie. This period saw the development of modern cities, where transport was by foot, horse or sailing ship, and where people had a simple and clear understanding of their place in the world. Large-scale organizations, with the exception of the church, did not exist. Even the army was often a temporary project of the highest paying nobleman at the time. In this small world everyone knew everything about everyone – gossip was rife. Everyone was connected via one, two or maybe three steps with everyone via clear-cut social networks. Nowadays we can observe similar social networks, which are virtual meeting places, taking the place of the marketplace or the village pump: everyone is once again connected via a few steps to everyone else. Now rumor and social activity are spread via Facebook and Twitter. In Russia the “free word” is spread via blogs and other social media.  On livejournal.com the message of the opposition is loud and clear, even though it cannot be heard on the street. These are large and easily linked databases, through which we know more now about each other now than we ever possibly could have done in the past, just as it is no longer easy to erase your past and start over somewhere else. YouTube has become the virtual counterpart of the old-fashioned funfair, where one can present himself and entertain or educate the public. Nowadays the Internet gives society the opportunity of new forms of trade and a platform for social activity that puts pressure on the post-medieval structure (Reep, Back to the Middle Ages, 2001).

The internet will reinstate a respect for craftsmanship. Since the customer has a multitude of options to choose from, you as a supplier will need to become the best in your field. This establishes a need for highly trained and skilled craftsmen, and as such old structures like the guild once more have their place. Only their name has changed (virtual community, closed user group certified RI, RA, MBA, Business Process Management Platform, etc.). Just as in the guilds, the master-professionals teach their student-professionals and they settle in each other’s physical neighborhoods. The ‘Baker Street’ will return in the shape of regional economic hubs such as Silicon Valley.

Self-planning and self-scheduling, also known as individual planning, is often considered to be part of a wider phenomenon of chain reversal. Likewise, other forms of self-organization are rapidly becoming more common: no longer are such things the work of the boss – today, you are more likely to be the boss of your work. Self-assembled teams fit this picture nicely. At BuurtZorg Nederland, for example, professional caregivers meet at “the kitchen table” and arrange the home care for customers in their neighborhood. It is a fast growing initiative and a taste of things to come. Franchises will become an important form of organization, because they utilise the power of combined procurement alongside real business-ownership, meaning that the costs of cooperation decrease significantly. In structure, these are similar to the feudal lords of old, though masked as franchise-givers. Why has markplaats.nl, the Dutch version of eBay, become such a success? Demand and supply have become much simpler because the product information and the physical product are offered separately. If the information about the product, its description and the pictures are appealing, a customer will contact the seller and only after that will the product be shipped. At the same time, the product is offered to the whole world, instead of just to the local village or perhaps the city. Not one to many, but one to everyone and with that, the long tail has become a fact.

In this way, a space opens up for small-scale craftsmanship, made possible by affordable technology. Just as on marktplaats.nl, products and services can be offered to the entire world simultaneously, making the chances of finding a buyer significantly larger. Customised ordering becomes possible, since information can be easily exchanged to allow customised products. This is the one-to-everyone idea. Because buyer and seller are not acquainted with one another, trust becomes as important as it used to be, such as in the case of travelling peddlers: out of sight, out of reach. Letters of credence, in any kind of form, remain important. Only the name has changed, i.e. peer governance. Business life is taking on more and more of a guild/network structure. There are now about 1 million self-employed people without personnel in the Netherlands (ZZPs), this number is increasing. As can be found in research by the Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving, the Utrecht University and Atlas voor Gemeenten, small companies benefit from the quality of life of their surroundings. Social cohesion increases. Generation Y, the digital native generation that have been raised with the internet, will no longer work for a boss and only want to do things that interest them. The legal personality did not exist in the middle ages as a judicial figure and people, at least on the scales at which they functioned, were dependent on the networks of the ZZP professionals or guilds.

We observe an increasing speed in communication and storytelling. We are returning to the time before the invention of the book where the writer has a direct connection with his readers. Writing becomes more and more like blogging, with a specific focus on vividness and images. Blogging becomes the new pulpit with the e-reader and the Smartphone as useful reading tool. Videoblogging appeals to the members of generation Y who grew up in a visual era and read far fewer books than their parents. Many commercial activities become short cyclical. And with that, old production philosophies like “sell them cheap, pile them high” are now out of date.

Webcams and Google Earth are realised forms of omnipresence and omniscience, characteristics that used to be only for the church. The whole world is one global village and TomTom and Twitter have become our most trusted travel partner. Ebay and marktplaats.nl are a revival of part practises. They show a revival of bartering: barter, direct peer-to-peer, P2P or goods-to-goods exchange. In the world of banks and loans the same story is unfolding. Smava.de, Zopa.uk are P2P trading places for loans that fit in the revival of the barter. (Reep, Finance 2.0, Superstructures or back to the cooperative public services., 2009) An example in the Netherlands is noppes.nl. A last beautiful example of the development of social currencies and barter is the bank of happiness. (Hapiness, 2010)

Soon, you will have your own “hearth” – a metaphor of your own energy source, replacing the current central supply. The true smart grid will send your excess of electricity from your private fuel cell, solar panel or windmill to remedy my shortage of the good: this is in fact a step back to the peer-to-peer barter structure. I expect that it will not take long before insurance will be organized via the Internet, like the collection of money in the church a few generations ago. Clear, simple, connecting and meaning giving. Alain Grootaerts discusses this principle in his book “Zin over het KIN principe: Keep it Near”. He coined the term “Nearonomics” (Grootaerts, 2009).

The plague has also returned. In the Internet age, viruses are traveling with devastating speed, and the doctors, or in this case the virus scanners, can only follow but not cure. City walls offered small-scale protection against infection, like firewalls should against viruses. Even the pillory, bashing, has returned with the help of the internet: the justice department and civilians publish pictures of wanted criminals and set up blacklists of, for instance, less safe airlines, defaulters and pedophiles. This is already common practice. You and I can easily and quickly be outlawed by every other citizen, with reputations that spread quickly to the international community.

This demands responsible behaviour from each and every party. The Internet has widened the area of effect of every action endlessly. That has to be countered by a set of restraints of freedom in order to maintain a (precarious) equilibrium. An attorney general that acts as a robber baron when they violate the rules of criminal law does not really help with the maintenance of such an equilibrium. And one has to watch out, for history on the WWW cannot be erased and becomes a lifetime archive. The relationship between the citizen and the state becomes a challenge – what is the state allowed to know about individuals and what are they allowed to do with the information that they have? Moreover, who will police the police?

Even the legitimacy of the state can be questioned. The relationship between the citizen and the state is shifting, and no longer is it automatically looked upon as a trusted advisor. The ‘protective’ government run by civil servants has nearly ceased to exist and there has been no replacement found. The pattern of the declining influence of the state leads to a call for civilians to have more influence in the courtroom.  The television show “de rijdende rechter” (the traveling judge) is one of the symptoms. Unfortunately, digital lynching and torture has also become a fact. It does not even make national headlines anymore. For example, NATO becomes more and more of a military temp agency that focusses on the guarantee of access to strategic natural resources for its members. Also that is a crusade.

As I mentioned, the plague has returned. Unfortunately this is also true in a medical sense. Step by step infectious diseases become a problem in the Western world again, thanks to antibiotic resistant bacteria. Via the stimulation of global thinking and action, the internet is an indirect cause of this phenomenon. People have become more mobile and the risks of the spread of diseases like the Mexican flu and other illnesses that used to remain ‘local’ have increased – not to mention the effects of the increasingly rapid spread of news.

A revival of interest in spirituality has returned as well: there is an impressive number of courses available to help you find the invisible energy and karma that is surrounding you. Corporate astrology is a booming business. TV-shows like Medium and Ghost Whisperer offer a daily view of the untouchable and un-understandable, from the country of the clear-cut religion. Whoever did not believe in ghosts or the undead already might start doubting himself. People seem to seek out mystification whenever the world has been completely ‘entzaubert’ (disenchanted) as Max Weber has called it.

And then science. How much more scientific has science become? (Reep, FransvanderReep.com, 2011)  I have respect for the practical and theoretical insights that have been obtained, but how far are we really removed from the the Aristotelian middle ages, when great minds such as Bruno, Kepler and Galileo had to pay such a large personal price for their knowledge? How value-free and empirically grounded is today’s science really? Think about the current ‘Modelplatonism’ as Hans Alb (Reep, FransvanderReep.com, 2011)ert called it, from for instance the mainstream macroeconomics (Albert, 1963)? And what does medical science do with the empirical observation that many receivers of a donor heart obtain memories and emotions of the donor, the so-called “organ consciousness” (Pearsall, 1999)? It takes a lot of courage to take an open-minded look at things and to ask questions with a truly open mind.

With the rise of the web as a source of information, estimating the objectivity and the value of information becomes increasingly difficult. Even Wikipedia, the open-source encyclopedia written by its readers themselves, has started to review and edit the available information by the use of trusted editors.

Similarly to the rise of the bourgeoisie, who took over from the reigning nobility at the end of the middle ages – we are now waiting on the bourgeoisie who will use new structures bypass the political elite, or possibly even surpass it by new political initiatives. The internet offers the platform for the direct plebiscite or for, for instance, the directly chosen mayor. Pim Fortuyn was the first who profiled himself in such a manner, and he nearly succeeded. Barack Obama used all the digital tools available to him with good results during his election, and it was noticed. In contrast to the “aloofness” of politicians in the last decade, it is now a possibility to have one-on-one communication with the voter. If politicians take the trouble to use videoblogging the rest of the Internet to its potential, they can be a modern replacement for the old “farmers cart” (this was also called the ‘soap box’). The Internet democratizes innovation. The German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk argued that new mass media lead to media mass, where civilians are easily manipulated and tempted. Recent developments have occurred on the other side (www.beleid20.nl), with the civilian innovation-initiative, a kind of end-user-driven-content. Also here a wrestling between stability and innovation can be observed. However, there can be no growth without roots.

The Dutch opinion poll 21minuten.nl offers a good insight into the mindset of the average Dutch person. The big change here is that the citizens are represented directly, rather than having to go through politicians for their representation. Already, without the impact from the internet, many of the policies are privatized, since at both sides of the table in the various ministries (expensive) external consultants are doing the job. We can see that in party politics the problems that concern all of us (e.g. solutions to the current financial crisis) are hardly manageable. It will not be the orientation of the traditional political parties, rooted in historic ‘debates and viewpoints’, but personal opinions and visions that will uncover future solutions. That means, for example, that classical social ideologies (socialist, Christian & liberal, in the Netherlands) are no longer the point of take-off.

No longer will the stances of the party gain the most votes, but the adoption of stances and opinions by the largest part of the population. Democracy at present is power on a basis of the wish of the majority. What is done once someone actually gains this power is afterwards irrelevant. Is this really what the voter wants?

The medieval “fierceness of daily life” and “rough reality”, to speak in the terms coined by Johan Huizinga, appear to be making a comeback. Executions are videotaped and uploaded onto Youtube. Individual self-control and safety are becoming more and more a matter of personal responsibility rather than a public affair. Children develop less and less in a safe cocoon and are exposed to all aspects of life earlier and earlier. It seems as if Lea Dasberg’s concept of “youthland” is evaporating, and this is something we have seen before (Dasberg, 1984). (Levine, 1997)A quote from Berkeley’s Peter Levine: ‘Being threatened engages our deepest resources and allows us to experience our fullest potential as human beings. In turn, our emotional and physical well-being is enhanced.’ (Levine, 1997). (Cornelis, 2000) I invite you to let this quote sink in for a while. Welcome back to the risk society.

These changes have large influence on our identity and on our sense of safety. Old anchors and holdfasts have been removed and new ones do not seem to be available yet, or are invisible. Are we still responding to the questions that this time is asking from us, or are we leaving the answers to others? Was Arnold Cornelis right when he stated that we are on our way from a social system of formal rules to a system of self-regulation (Cornelis, 2000)?

It seems as if the entire medieval development agenda has returned, the same questions, but with new answers. From many of the examples it appears that new governance and top-down control or control from the outside in has been removed or is in the process of being removed. The state loses its function and its meaning, the model of democracy is slowly changing and the employer as an anchor is being removed. Banks and insurance companies have their best days behind them. When you seek to fill the sense of emptiness and the loss of meaning that these developments create within the existing frameworks, a feeling of insecurity comes into existence for many of us. This is a completely human and logical consequence. However, the good news is that there is a multitude of forms and sources of inspiration to fill these voids.

Lots of initiatives are coming our way. I list here some of them. We can see for example how the FNV (a Dutch trade union) tries to organize the self-employed entrepreneurs. I already mentioned the social media-based example of the election campaign of Obama. There will be new questions, such as how to organize the social debate. There are social structures that will remain the same, such as the family or schools. However, this demands a reorientation and a different openness than in the past. In fact, we are given the chance to define ourselves from the inside to the outside instead of from an external ideology, in whatever shape.

All sorts of growing forms of self-governance and self-organization are coming into existence. In our age, the individual is acquiring more space and is able to make himself the focal point. You could speak of a renewed personal connection between origin and destination, and with that a renewal of personal responsibility. You decide what you will grow in your vegetable garden and who you will sell or give to. Instead of “vegetable garden”, one could also read capacities and capabilities.

I will give a couple more examples of changing forms of self-governance and the recovery of the connection between origin and destination:

Entrepreneurship: as a self-employed person you are the origin and determine the destination of your business.

Energy: a characteristic of sustainable energy is the connection made between origin and destination. You produce wind or solar energy and you use it and trade/sell the leftovers.

Writer: The writer/blogger connects himself with his readers in the Internet era. The writer becomes the minstrel or jester, but he also asks us whether “we can tell a story this time”, adding to the process through our interaction.

(In)security: Short tempers online lead to both the desire and ability for people to play judge, to some extent. This is an unwanted side-effect of the connection between origin and destination of punishment, but an autonomous consequence of the risk society.

In many aspects connections are restored. Connections between the origin and destination of money for instance, in peer to peer banking, a connection we can also find in Islamic banks. We will see an increasing number of different forms of self-governance and self-organization (Wikipedia, 2010). Private money, for example the Bitcoin, is a new category of money, where financing becomes similar to ‘social networking’ (Decentralized cash, 2010). They are called ‘social currencies’ and foster barter.

When our self-organizing capabilities increase, so proportionately does our capability to have either a destructive or positive influence. So, with the ability to self-organise comes the question of personal responsibility. The question is: what side we will choose for ourselves? The Internet brings us into the ‘personal age’. Because the top-down authority becomes less authoritative (What is a chicken? what is an egg?) social power structures tumble down. The Internet can have a positive influence in the development of initiatives and new forms of cooperation.

The main question for me is whether human beings will improve through these changes. Or perhaps not – I don’t know. I do know however that there are no societies which can function without beacons of social cohesion, mental anchors and basic rules. Where the virtual space widens our scope, the enlargement of political space (Europe, Nato, UN) has limited our scope. The need for a person to have his/her own language, identity and “beacons” of his/her life – mental anchors – increases as enlargement leads to anonymity or deprivation of one’s own direction.

We have the need for a shared vision of what is happening around us, otherwise we will feel estranged. Unity of perspective means that taking action will become easier. I sense a quest for significance. We have an urge to seek out simplicity and meaning: the vegetable patch from earlier is an example of sustainability and self-help. We have a need for science and for presence: scientific disciplines should cooperate and look at things together instead of working apart from each other, though studying the same things. We have the need to find ourselves once again and to re-locate ourselves in this existence. We do everything around the anchor in ourselves, and thus our concept of man. Where cooperation and integrity are reduced to an arithmetical problem for managers, aided by their courtiers, and where people are organized only on the axis of usefulness and production, a “homesickness” to the roots becomes apparent. This homesickness can take many shapes and sizes in society, politics, business life and in your own life.

What can we learn from this? The paradigm “old directs new” does not work anymore. The inverse paradigm “new directs old” only works partially however. This creates a possibly dangerous policy-vacuum, but also new opportunities. The current situation creates both Al-Qaida and Obama; both fear and hope. Did you know that with the collapse of the Berlin Wall, and now the collapse of international banking and multi-national economic companies, old ideologies like communism, socialism and capitalism have been abandoned as possible models for a better world? And precisely in this vacuum new crusades are fought. A new fundamentalism may appear. Old instruments of control lose their influence and new ones are created. But which of these will bring us, as individuals, the most opportunity?

Xenophobia, discrimination, intolerance (fascism) on the one hand and freedom of travel, information and knowledge on the other will come to meet each other in conflict time and time again. How do we defend ourselves from these tensions? Are we awake or will we close our eyes? Do we choose to be destructive or constructive? Both pathways are possible. I hope that the parallels I drew here between our time and the middle ages, however staccato and incomplete they might be, will help us understand our time. I hope they will remove something of the existential fear that comes into existence whenever we fail to understand new things, and to simplify the transition from “old directs new” to the “new directs old”. I also hope that from this understanding it will become easier to choose our road with courage. Like I said in 2001: After the middle ages, the Renaissance and the (Dutch) golden age began. Let’s assume that the same will happen this time around.

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Published in:

The Middle Ages in the Internet Era, (in) 2015 and Beyond, Beyond Beyond, Secondsight, Amsterdam 2015 p 84-91, isbn 978-94-91131-00-4

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Works cited

Albert, H. (1963). Modell- Platonismus , Der neoklassische Stil des ökonomischen Denkens in kritischer Beleuchtung. In Sozialwissenschaft und Gesellschaftsgestaltung – Festschrift für Gerhard Weisse. (pp. 45 – 76). Duncker und Humbolt.

Ball, P. (2004). Critcal Mass. Arrow Books.

Cornelis, A. (2000). Logica van het gevoel. Boom Publishers.

Dasberg, L. (1984). Grootbrengen door kleinhouden als historisch verschijnsel. Meppel: Boom.

Decentralized cash. (2010). Retrieved in 2014 from http://www.psfk.com/2009/09/video-currency-renegades-and-decentralized-cash.html

Grootaerts, A. (2009). Zon. Over het leven in de 21e eeuw. Vrijdag.

Hapiness, T. B. (2010). The Bank of Hapiness. Retrieved in 2014 from van Onnepank: http://www.onnepank.ee/about/bank/story

Levine, P. (1997). Waking the tiger, healing trauma. Berkeley.

Morris, C. (1972). Discovery of the Individual. Toronto: University Press.

Pearsall, P. (1999). Het geheugen van het hart. Lemniscaat.

Reep, F. v. (2001). Back to the Middle Ages. Management & Informatie , 2.

Reep, F. v. (sd). Finance 2.0, Superstructures or back to the cooperative public services. Management Site .

Reep, F. v. (2011). FransvanderReep.com. retrieved from: Hoe wetenschappelijk is wetenschap? http://www.fransvanderreep.com/2011/10/14/hoe-wetenschappelijk-wetenschap/

Reep, F. v. (2005). From Schedule push to Reality pull. European Retail Digest , 33 -36.

Reep, F. v. (2010). Social Media and Social Companies. BPTrends .

Reep, F. v. (2013). The new challenge What guides You, understanding or ideology. Rotterdam.

Shirky, C. (2008). Here comes everybody. London: Penguin Books.

Wikipedia. (2010). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hub_Culture . Retrieved in 2014 from, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hub_Culture

 

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Longer version

The Middle Ages in the Internet-era: what is happening around us?

An essay

Frans van der Reep[i]

In 2001 I wrote that as a consequence of the invention of the internet, society has shown, and will be seen to take on, more and more medieval characteristics in the future. As such, we will witness a revival of the ‘middle ages’. I think this is an up-to-date metaphor, offering an interesting frame of reference, and organizational context, in which we can place the current developments in context in order to obtain a clearer overview. In contemporary society, the business world, the individual and the internet when seen in relation to one another, experience an unprecedented development. It seems as if suddenly the safe walls of our house are lifted and we are looking at our new surroundings and seem to have lost our protection. Banks, newspapers, churches and even our governments are no longer what they used to be, governments more and more being led by primitive ideologies as it seems with a bias on short term results. Our world changes, our view of the world changes and whether we want it or not – so does our very identity. The world seems more susceptible to hypes and at the same time new connections and new combinations arise at an astonishing speed. The concurrence of “waving and weaving”, the internet also being a weaving loom for all types of new combinations and also accelerating hypes (“waves”) as well, for is this concurrence is about to happen?[ii][iii]

With the invention of the internet, factors like location, time and for a large part also cost are no longer influencing the process of information transfer. Information becomes available to everyone, free of charge. This leads to changes in the power structures. During the last century the phrase “knowledge is power” led to a social revolution which secured access to education for everyone and transparency of government. It is interesting to see how parallels can be drawn between medieval structures, organizations and methods of operation. This offers businesses, education professionals and policy makers possibilities to understand new developments more quickly and efficiently and to apply them in their own management strategies. This metaphor might help to overcome the paralysis that can be observed when new policies are developed as it creates a reference point of what’s currently going on. You need to know where you are as a reference point[iv] to define the first step.

The middle ages: the time of nobility, clergy and the bourgeoisie. A period that saw the development of cities, transport by foot, horse or sailing ship, and where people had a clear place in the world. Earth was not yet seen as a planet. Large scale organizations, with the exception of the church, did not exist. Even the army was often a temporary project of the highest paying nobleman. In this small world everyone knew everything about everyone – gossip was rife. Everyone was connected via one, two or maybe three steps with everyone via clear-cut social networks. Nowadays we can observe similar social networks, virtual meeting places like the market or the village pump used to be and everyone is once again connected via a few steps to everyone. Now rumor as well as social action is spread via Facebook, Twitter and Yammer, as was recently shown in the case of Iran, during the summer of unrest in 2009. In Russia the “free word” is spread via blogs and other social media.  On livejournal.com the message of the opposition is loud and clear even though it cannot be heard on the street. There are large, simple to link, databases, through which we know more about each other now than we did back then, and you can no longer erase your past and start over somewhere else. YouTube has become the virtual counterpart of the old-fashioned funfair, where one can present himself and entertain or educate the public. Celebrities seem to be the new nobility. Nowadays the internet gives society the opportunity of new forms of trade and a platform for social action that will put pressure on the post-medieval structures[v].

The internet will reinstate a respect for craftsmanship. Since the customer has a multitude of options to choose from, you as a supplier will need to become the best in your field. The education to supply such craftsmen has been founded, and old structures like the guild are established once again. Only the name has changed (in crowd, virtual community, closed user group certified RC, RI, RA, MBA, DBA, Business Process Management Platform, etc.). Just as in the guilds, the master-professionals teach their student-professionals and they settle in each other’s physical neighborhoods. Business life increasingly takes over the direction of all kinds of education. At the Dutch Lemniscaat School of Management one can not only obtain an MBA but also a DBA,  a doctorate, without, in a manner of speaking having to see a university building on the inside. It is a so-called private initiative. The ‘Baker Street’ will return in the shape of regional economic activities such as Silicon Valley, the Strip and the High Tech Campus  in Eindhoven.

Self-planning and self-scheduling, also known as individual planning, is often named as a part of a wider phenomenon of chain reversal, likewise other forms of self-organization are rapidly increasing: such as from the work of the boss to the boss of your work. Self-assembled teams fit this picture nicely. At BuurtZorg Nederland, for example, professional care-givers meet at the kitchen table and arrange the Home Care for customers in their neighborhood. It is a fast growing initiative and possibly a taste of things to come[i][vi]. Franchises will become an important form of organization, because they combine the power of combined procurement with real business-ownership, meaning that the costs of cooperation decrease significantly. This is like a return to the feudalistic lords but masked as a franchise-giver. The Oogziekenhuis, a specialized eye hospital in Rotterdam, offers its services like a franchise to other hospitals, and the organizational structures of franchises are already popular with fast-food chains and chain stores. Why has markplaats.nl, the Dutch version of eBay, become such a success? Demand and supply have become much simpler because the product information and  the physical product are offered separately. If the information about the product, its description and the pictures are appealing, a customer will contact the seller and only after that will the product be shipped. At the same time, the product is offered to the whole world, instead of the village or maybe even the city. Not one to many, but one to everyone and with that, the long tail  has become a fact.

In this way, a space opens up for small scale and craftsmanship, made possible by affordable technology. Just as on marktplaats.nl products and services can be offered to the entire world simultaneously, making the chances of finding a buyer significantly larger. Customized ordering becomes a possibility since information can be easily exchanged to make the customized product possible. The one-to-everyone idea. And because buyer and seller are not acquainted with one another, trust becomes as important as it used to as the trust in the travelling peddlers used to be: out of sight, out of reach. Letters of credence, in any kind of form, remain important. Only the name has changed i.e. Peer governance. Business life obtains more and more a guild and network structure. There are now about 1 million self-employed people without personnel in the Netherlands (ZZPs), this number is increasing. As can be found in research by the Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving, the Utrecht University and Atlas voor Gemeenten, small companies benefit from the quality of life of their surroundings. Social cohesion increases. Generation Y, the digital native generation that have been raised with the internet, will no longer work for a boss and only want to do things that interest them.

The legal personality did not exist in the middle ages as a judicial figure and people, at least on the scales at which they functioned, were dependent on the networks of the ZZP professionals or guilds.

Ranks and positions become more obvious: some are allowed more than others. Do you feel like you are the slave of your tribe, because you are forced to do things in your work that you would rather not do? We can observe both a longing for personal development as well as a form of new collective pressure. Is this the revival of the tribal society or are new social arrangements being formed? It is a fight between stability on the one side and movement on the other, or individual freedom versus conformity, or between diversity and uniformity that are characteristics of our time. This once again shows “waving and weaving”.

We observe an increasing speed in communication and storytelling. The Dutch ‘national poet’ – yes he really exists!! – is the new countrywide minstrel. We are returning to the time before the invention of the book where the writer has a direct connection with his readers, the  e-reader speeding up this process. Writing becomes more and more blogging with a specific focus on imagery. Blogging becomes the new pulpit with the e-reader and the Smartphone as useful reading tool. Videoblogging fits with the generation Y who grew up in a visual era and hardly read any books. All the information travels quickly. Many commercial activities become short cyclical. And with that old production philosophies like the idea to produce a large inventory become out of date.

Webcams and Google Earth are realized forms of omnipresence and omniscience, characteristics that used to be only for the church. The whole world is one global village and TomTom and Twitter have become our most trusted travel partner. We see Ebay and marktplaats.nl as the staple of former days. They show a revival of bartering: barter, direct peer-to-peer, P2P or goods-to-goods exchange. In the world of banks and loans the same story is unfolding. Smava.de, Zopa.uk are P2P trading places for loans that fit in the revival of the barter [vii]. An example in the Netherlands is noppes.nl. A last beautiful example of the development of social currencies and barter is the bank of happiness.

You will have your own hearth to facilitate your own energy supply at the cost of the current common goods. The truly smart electrical connector that will forward your excess of electricity from your private fuel cell, solar panel or windmill to my shortage of the good, is in fact a step back to the peer-to-peer barter structure. The software is available. A return to the vegetable patch, so to speak. I expect that it will not take long before our insurances will be organized via the internet, like the collection of money in the church a few generations ago. Clear, simple, connecting and meaning giving. Alain Grootaerts discusses this principle in his book “Zin over het KIN principe: Keep it Near”. He coined the term “Nearonomics”[viii].

The plague has also returned. In the internet age viruses are traveling with a devastating speed, and the doctors, or in this case the virus scanners, can only follow but not cure. City walls offered small scale protection against infection, like firewalls should against viruses. Even the pillory, bashing, has returned with the advance of the internet: the justice department and civilians publish pictures of ‘suspects’  and black list of for instance less safe airlines, defaulters and pedophiles are already common practice. You and I can easily be outlawed by every other citizen and international or national law will be passed.

This asks for the taking of responsibility by and for each party. Internet has enlarged the space of action endlessly. That has to be countered by a set of restraints of freedom in order to maintain a (precarious) equilibrium. An attorney general that acts as a robber baron when they violate the rules of criminal law does not really help with the maintenance of such an equilibrium. And one has to watch out, for the history on the WWW cannot be erased and becomes a lifetime archive. The relationship between the citizen and the state becomes a challenge – what is the state allowed to know about individuals and what are they allowed to do with the information that they have? And who will police the police? A court case in July 2009 between the Dutch secret service and the Dutch newspaper “De Telegraaf” was concerned with the question of whether the secret service was allowed to search the homes of journalists in such cases.

Even the legitimacy of the state can be questioned. The relationship between the citizen and the state is shifting, not being automatically looked upon as trusted advisor. The ‘protective’ government run by civil servants has nearly ceased to exist and there has been no replacement found. This pattern of the declining influence of the state leads to a call of the civilians to have more influence in the courtroom.  The television show “de rijdende rechter” (the traveling judge) is one of the symptoms. Unfortunately digital lynching and torture has also become a fact. It does not even make national headlines anymore. I predict an increase in the number of crusades and more debates concerning norms and values [ix].

The century-long battle between religion and state has entered a new round. In the Netherlands we only have to look at the PVV (Party for the Freedom) vs. the Islam. For the wealthy there are nice ways of protection. Do you for instance live in a “Green Park”? There is a market for a fortified castles, with soldiers at the drawbridge, the gated community, including your own security guards. Peter R. de Vries, a celebrity private detective, known from mass media, and the increase in the number of privately organized security companies show that security has become a challenge to the citizens themselves and that such tasks can no longer be dealt with by the State. In Den Bosch, a Dutch city, such a castle has just been completed, de Haverleij [x].

Have you noticed the revival of patronage? As a consequence of the retreat of the government, businesses are starting to sponsor culture. Although this movement has stagnated a bit due to the financial crisis, Joop van den Ende, a theater impresario, has returned culture into the lives of many and Royal KPN sponsors the van Gogh museum.

As I mentioned before, the plague has returned. Unfortunately also in a medical sense. Step by step infectious diseases become a problem in the Western world again, thanks to antibiotic resistant bacteria. Via the stimulation of global thinking and action, the internet is an indirect cause to this phenomenon. People have become more mobile and the risks of the spread of diseases like the Mexican flu and other illnesses that used to remain ‘local’ have increased – not to mention the effects of an increasing travelling speed of the news.

A revival of interest in spirituality has returned as well: there is an impressive amount of courses available that aim to let you find the invisible energy and karma that is surrounding you. Corporate astrology is a booming business. And Harry Palmer, founder of the AvaTar (AvaTar.com) movement,  became a success story. Tv-shows like Medium, Ghost Whisperer and Charmed offer you a daily view of the untouchable and un-understandable, from the country of the clear-cut religion. Whoever did not believe in ghosts or the undead already, might start doubting himself. The rational, western worldview offers in the end no emotional support. People seem to want and look for mystification, there where the world has been completely ‘entzaubert’ (disenchanted) as Max Weber has called it. Similar things happened in the Middle ages. Hence, people start looking for other means of giving meaning to themselves, and the many courses on personal leadership and meditation seem to answer to this almost religious demand.

And then science. How much more scientific has science become? If you have read Gregory Bateson, you know what I mean[xi]. I have respect for the practical and theoretical insights that have been obtained, but how far are we really removed from the the Aristotelian middle ages where great minds like Bruno, Keppler and Galilei had to pay a large personal price for their knowledge? How value-free and empirically grounded is science, really? Think about the current ‘Modelplatonism’ as Hans Albert called it, from for instance the mainstream macro-economics[xii] ? And what does medical science do with the empirical observation that many receivers of a donor heart obtain memories and emotions of the donor, the so-called “organ consciousness”?[xiii] Does this lead to a rewriting of the theory or to actions from the union of quackery? It takes a lot of courage to take an open-minded look at things and ask questions with an open mind. There is a considerable amount of knowledge available that cannot be fitted in with the western science, which is behaving like the medieval church of former days; claiming to know the truth. The Dutch Professor Buikhuijsen, who was excommunicated from the scientific community in the 80s, due to his view on the treatment methods of criminals, knows all too well about that.

With the increase of the web as a source of information, estimating the objectivity and the value of information becomes increasingly more difficult. Even Wikipedia, the open-source encyclopedia, written by the readers themselves, has started to review and edit the available information by the use of trusted editors.

Similarly to the rise of the bourgeoisie, who took over from the up-till-then reigning nobility at the end of the middle ages – we are now waiting on the bourgeoisie who, using new structures get around the political elite, or possibly even surpass it by new political initiatives. The internet offers the platform for the direct plebiscite or for, for instance, the directly chosen mayor. Pim Fortuyn was the first who profiled himself in such a manner, and he nearly succeeded. Barack Obama used all digital means with good results during his election and it was noticed. In contrast to the “aloofness” of politicians in the last decade, it is now a possibility to have one-on-one communication with the voter, if politicians take the trouble to use all the possibilities of the internet and videoblogging they can use internet as a modern replacement of the old “farmers cart” (this called also be called ‘soap box’).

The Internet democratizes innovation. The technical possibilities to hold a plebiscite are available, albeit not really technical reliable. Is the grassroots democracy a matter of time and the red pencil replaceable by a keyboard? Or is it still too unsafe? The contra-argument has been formulated, for example by Andrew Keen, with his book “The Cult of the Amateur – “How today’s internet is killing our culture”. Keen stands in a long tradition. From the early 50s the Dutch futurologist Fred Polak predicted that “dark living rooms meant dark brains” in light of the development of the television. The German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk argued that new mass media lead to media mass, civilians who are easily manipulated and tempted[xiv]. Recent developments have occurred on the other side (www.beleid20.nl), with the civilian innovation-initiative, a kind of end-user-driven-content. Also here a wrestling between stability and innovation can be observed. However, no growth without roots.

The Dutch opinion poll 21minuten.nl offers a good insight into the mindset of the average Dutch person. The big change here is that it is not the politicians that are representing us, but the citizens are being represented directly. The fact that this is already a possibility puts up large question marks about the current multiparty system that is founded on a democratic base (half + 1). Already, without the impact from the internet, many of the policies are privatized, since at both sides of the table in the various ministries (expensive) external consultants are doing the job. We can see that in the party politics the problems that concern all of us (e.g. solutions to the current financial crisis) are hardly manageable. It will not be the orientation of the traditional  political parties, rooted in the historic  ‘debates and viewpoints’,  but personal opinions and visions will become more prominent in future solutions. That means e.g. that the classical social ideologies (socialist, Christian, liberal) are no longer the point of take-off.

What becomes then the overarching factor and where can the borders of direct democracy be found?  Not  the stances of the party will gain the most votes, but the adoption of stances and opinions of the largest part of the population. Democracy is, according to Fortuyn, power on a base of the wish of the majority. That’s a lesson Geert Wilders, the Dutch populist anti-Islam politician, has learned quickly. So, populism is in the air. What to do when one actually gains the power is afterwards irrelevant. Does the voter think about this? In this populist view we are far removed from the definition of politics as the “authority that carries out norms and values”.

The medieval “fierceness of daily life” and “rough reality”, to speak in the terms coined by Johan Huizinga, appear to be making a comeback. Executions are videotaped and uploaded onto Youtube. Individual self-control and safety are becoming more and more a personal responsibility instead of a public affair, although this new reality has not yet been properly observed in The Hague. Is a lack of personal responsibility for personal behaviour, ‘short fuses’ resulting in the individual  right  to claim your right to play, and in the end leading to suicide-bombing and terrorist attacks, really the future? Children develop less and less in a safe cocoon and are exposed to all aspects of life earlier and earlier. It seems as if Lea Dasberg’s concept of “youthland” is evaporating and that is something we have seen before[xv].

A quote from Berkeley’s Peter Levine[xvi]: ‘Being threatened engages our deepest resources and allows us to experience our fullest potential as human beings. In turn, our emotional and physical well-being is enhanced.’ I invite you to let this quote sink in for a while. Welcome back to the risk society.

These changes have large influence on our identity and on our sense of safety. Old anchors and holdfasts[SB1]  have been removed and new ones do not seem to be available yet, or are invisible. I dare to state that there is not only a credit crisis, but also an identity crisis. Are we still responding to the questions that this time is asking from us, or are we leaving the answers to others? Can we thrust [SB2] on these old values, on our merits, or are they no longer of any value? Was Arnold Cornelis right when he stated that we are on our way from a social system of formal rules into a system of self regulation[SB3] ?[xvii] The availability of all information will in the end provide no new certainty.

What should we be striving for? In our personal lives, business lives, on the political agenda? We usually know what we don’t want, but we don´t know yet what we do want. That’s one of the core issues of our current time. The answer can only be determined by oneself, I think. Meaning is given from the inside. This means asking fundamental questions to ourselves, particularly on our concept of man? Who are we? To what extent are we individuals and to what extent are we together? In which arrangement do we have a part and do we have a choice in any of the matters?

Remarkably, here we can also find a parallel to the middle ages. It seems as if the entire medieval development agenda has returned, the same questions – new answers. From many of the examples it appears that new governance and top-down control or control from the outside in has been removed or in the process of being removed. The state loses its function and its meaning, the model of democracy is slowly changing and the employer as an anchor is being removed, banks and insurance companies have had their longest time, etc. When you want to fill the sense of emptiness and loss of meaning  that these developments create within the existing frameworks, a feeling of insecurity comes into existence for many of us. This is a completely human and logical consequence. However, the good news is that there is a multitude of forms and sources of inspiration to fill these voids.

Lots of initiatives are coming our ways. I list here some of them. We can see for example how the FNV (a Dutch trade union) tries to organize the  self-employed entrepreneurs. I already mentioned the social media based example of the election campaign of Obama. There will be new questions, such as how to organize the social debate.There are social structures that will remain the same, like the family and schools. Others will change. The norms and values debate develops in forms like the 21minuten questionnaire, a publicly run questionnaire to measure what people think and feel on an daily basis,  and for example Entoen.nu, a website with a forum where the canon of the Netherlands’ history can be discussed by Dutch scholars. Bottom-up instead of top-down.

However, this demands a reorientation and a different openness than in the past. In fact, we are given the chance to define ourselves from the inside to the outside instead of from an external ideology, in whatever shape.

There is a similarity in the way the development of the printing press made the distribution of the Dutch and German bible possible, and with that triggered the reformation and offered the population an alternative to the Catholic teachings. In this case, the Internet can be seen as a metaphor of this printing press. Everyone can be potentially a publisher. It takes some time getting used to that idea the world is no longer flat and that on the basis of the same book (the bible) multiple religions can co-exist[xviii].

All sorts of growing forms of self-governance and self-organization are coming into existence. As if in this time the individual gets space and makes himself the central point. You could speak of a renewed personal connection between origin and destination, and with that a renewal of personal responsibility. You decide what you will grow in your vegetable garden and who you will sell or give to. Instead of vegetable garden, one could also read capacities and capabilities. The industrial era in which we viewed ourselves and world  as – primarily rational – cooperation functions is over. We are now able to create meanings for ourselves…

I will give a couple more examples of changing forms of self-governance and  the recovery of the connections between origin and destination.

Entrepreneurship: as a self-employed person you are the origin and determine the destination of your business.

Energy: a characteristic of sustainable energy is the connection it makes between origin and destination. You produce wind or solar energy and you use it and trade/sell the leftovers.

Writer: The writer/blogger connects himself with his reader in the Internet era. The writer becomes the minstrel or jester, but he also asks us whether “we can tell a story this time”.

(In)security: Short temper is a form of playing judge yourself, an unwanted side-effect of the connection between origin and destination of punishment, but an autonomous consequence of the risk society.

Self-scheduling organizes a connection between the origin and the destination of your productivity. You decide what to do when. In “Obelix and Co.” an adventure of Asterix, it has been described what can happen when such a connection is lacking. Obelix, the friendly menhir builder becomes contracted to produce a certain quota of menhirs, everything derails and the goal is frustrated.

In many aspects connections are restored. Connections between the origin and destination of money for instance, in peer to peer banking, a connection  we can also find in Islamic banks. We will see an increasing amount of forms of self-governance and self-organization[xix]. Private money, for example the Ven or Lets as a new money category, in which financing becomes similar to ‘social networking’[xx]. They are called ‘social currencies’ and foster barter.

You decide about your own ‘vegetable garden’, you pay for it and enjoy it. This means integrity will be an issue: When our self-organizing capabilities increase, so will our capability to have either a destructive or positive influence increase proportionately. So, with self-organization capabilities comes the question of personal responsibility. The bible, which was the framework for the position of the (western) person, the guidance through the Middle ages, is no longer that. Question is, what side we will choose ourselves. Internet takes us into the ‘personal age’. We are becoming more and more self-governing because of the connection between the origin and destination and the connection that decides, pays and enjoys on an individual level. Because the top-down authority becomes less authoritative (What is chicken? what is egg?) social power structures are tumbling down. I have pointed at the changed forms in the business world, politics and churches. We are now witnessing them. Internet can have a positive influence in the development of initiatives and new forms of cooperation.

However, Internet does not replace the meeting of other people. The main question for me is whether human beings will improve through these changes. Or not? I don´t know. I know that there are no societies, which can function without beacons of social cohesion, mental anchors and basic rules. They all need beacons like  the post office. Where the virtual space widens our scope, the enlargement of political space (Europe, Nato, UN) has limited our scope. The need for an own language and identity of beacons of our life, mental anchors, increases as enlargement leads to anonymity or deprivation of one’s own direction. Up until now Internet has offered (free) facilities to compensate. You can design your identity, your impression as you like it, individually, in groups or random in communities. Public and secret, 1:1 as well as 1:everybody and everybody:everybody.

We have the need for a shared vision of what is happening around us, otherwise we will feel estranged. Unity of perspective means that taking action will become easier. I sense a quest for significance. We have an urge to simplicity and meaning: the vegetable patch as an example of sustainability and self-help. We have a need for science and presencing: sciences should cooperate more together and look at things together instead of working apart from each other and study the same things. This also counts for health care. We don´t like to be sent from department to another and hear everywhere that ‘they’ don’t know it completely or that ‘they’ cannot make a decision on this topic. We want a team of doctors that cares for us as a patient, as long as necessary until a solution is found or not; interdisciplinary. We have the need to refind ourselves and to re-locate ourselves in this existence. We serve the anchor in ourselves, and thus our  concept of man. Where cooperation and integrity become an arithmetical problem from managers, aided by their courtiers, and people are organized only on the axis of usefulness and production, a “homesickness” to the roots will become apparent. This homesickness can take many shapes and sizes in society, politics, business life and in your own life.

What can we learn from this? The paradigm “old directs new” does not work anymore. The paradigm “new directs old” only works partially. This creates a possibly dangerous policy-vacuum, but also new opportunities. The current situation creates both Al-Qaida and Obama, fear and hope. Did you know that with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and now the collapse of international banking and multi-national economic companies, the old ideologies like communism, socialism and capitalism have been abandoned as possible models for a better world? And precisely in this vacuum new crusades are fought. A new fundamentalism may appear. Old instruments of control lose their influence and new ones are created. But which of these will bring us, as individuals, the most opportunities? Awareness of the possibilities at hand, with chances for both good and evil, is important. The globalization of our information leads to a withdrawal into our own fortress, within the firewalls of our existence.

Xenophobia, discrimination, intolerance (fascism) on the on hand and freedom of travel, information and knowledge will meet each other time and again. How do we make ourselves defensible between these tensions? Are we awake or will we close our eyes? Do we choose to be destructive or constructive? Both pathways are possible. I hope that the parallels I drew here from our time to the middle ages, no matter how staccato and incomplete, will help to understand our time, and with that to take away a part of the existential fear that comes into existence when we fail to understand things, and to simplify the transition from “old directs new” to “new directs old”. I also hope that from this understanding it will become easier to choose our road with courage. Like I said in 2001: After the middle ages, the Renaissance and  the (Dutch) golden age began. Let’s assume that the same will happen this time around.

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Original 2001 paper: http://www.fransvanderreep.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/middeleeuwen.pdf

Published in:

The Middle Ages in the Internet Era, (in) 2015 and Beyond, Beyond Beyond, Secondsight, Amsterdam 2015 p 84-91, isbn 978-94-91131-00-4

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