General Will 2.0 Chapter Summary

In his book General Will 2.0, Hikori Azuma writes about his optimistic vision of the relationship between society and information. Azuma holds a strong belief that technology will accentuate political discourse and allow each individual to spread their ideas as far and wide as possible, creating an environment where an unconscious democracy can exist and reach its true potential. Azuma’s views however put too much faith in the individual and the cohesiveness of society. The ideas of General Will 2.0 fail to discriminate between intelligence and wisdom, fail to acknowledge the sharp increase in noise relative to positive political discussion, and in the end will result in a political climate not much different of the current status quo. The …show more content…
From his analysis of collective intelligence and Rousseau’s The Social Contract, Azuma states that “Rousseau believed the general will is something that is mathematically computable” (pg. 26). Azuma argues throughout that rest of the book that the general will can only become clearer and more defined through the use of technology to aggregate the sum of differences. What Azuma fails to take into account however is how technology substantially increases individualism and allows cults of personality to form. The idea that politicians can gauge public reaction is naïve due to the fact that technology has allowed middle men to emerge and shift politics, through either media or an ethos appeal. Technology blurs the particular will of each individual, making particular will less defined for each specific individual. Although particular wills still sum to the will of all, the differences are eroded by technology, creating a general will than is corrupted and inaccurate. Technology shifts the differences in particular will for each member of society, resulting in a will that may not necessarily be flawless or fundamentally different from the will of