Hierarchies and Egalitarianism

Technology has often made a serious impact, first on the activities wherein it is applied, then like ripples from a stone thrown into a pond, it affects the culture in many ways.  The World Wide Web with its capabilities for interaction among widely diverse groups of people has made a radical impact on the flow and use of information, and its ripple effects in the culture have led some to predict the demise of organizational hierarchies and the advent of egalitarianism in the culture, in ways yet unforeseen.

While the technology of the world wide web and its development does inspire egalitarian visions,  I doubt very much if hierarchies will become obsolete.  Hierarchies are built into the world, even the universe itself.  Astronomers rank stars according to their magnitude.  Biologists observe dominance and submission among apes.  Human enterprises, including developers of the World Wide Web, need to form some kind of organization to accomplish anything.  Even so-called “open source” communities eventually organize themselves into something formal, distinguishing themselves from those who are not members of the community. A computer program needs a “main” and other program segments to be called by the “main” as needed.  The most basic social unit, the family, needs structure. Finally, there is the hierarchy between the spiritual and the material.

Hierarchies will always be with us.  The promise of egalitarianism to be brought about by the WWW is merely a dream. The WWW may be considered as a contributor to the loss of absolute truth and the rise in moral relativism as participants increasingly disdain authority and defer to the power of the crowd or the collective as facilitated by the WWW.