If you had to do a portrait of 'society', it would look something like this. Very clumpy, a small number of…

If you had to do a portrait of 'society', it would look something like this. Very clumpy, a small number of networked hubs. What drives the creation and maintenance of these hubs is social contagion. Imitation. Fads and fashions. /1 https://t.co/rN9hyvhgZA

This is true even for the most serious of issues. It's all social contagion, all people imitating role models at the hubs. The hopeless term 'the people' doesn't capture this clumpiness in anyway. /2

It assumes a homogeneous mass of distinct points, one for every person living in a society. Societies never work like that. There are always a handful of 'influencers', in every part of life, about 5% of the group, that the other 95% imitate i.e. follow. /3

Also how infectious diseases tend to operate, particularly those with the dispersion characteristics of Covid. It's a grave mistake to assume 'Covid is everywhere', even though it may be. /4

It's everywhere because of the hubs. No need to target everywhere, just target the hubs. The same applies to any public issue. These platforms have the same topology. /5

The spread of Covid matches the spread of ideas about Covid, on a platform like this. Humans are the hosts. How they act in relation to the disease is the social contagion of following their favourite influencer-hub. /6

The good news here is that it means most problems that seem gigantic and insurmountable are really quite tiny. You just have to find the hubs, and deal with them. For any social problem. /7

'Free speech' advocates want us to believe the millions of tiny independent dots 'the people' view of society. In reality those advocates are hubs. People with vast audiences already. While most of us have no audience at all. /8

Most of our social problems could be fixed quickly, if we understood them as networks. If we understood society socially. Humans imitate. They follow fads and fashions, led by a tiny handful of hubs. /9

It's why conservatives for example spent decades setting up 'think tanks', hubs to spew forth propaganda 24 hours of every day. Tiny numbers of people are in these hubs. /10

They also generate all the spin about free speech and 'authoritarianism' to prevent the really pretty easy task of shutting them down. The whole thing is a con, using a good understanding of how humans behave and think. /11

Tiny numbers of bad people use networks to hijack democracies. Good people think the outcome is 'the will of the people'. Which it sort of is, except it's really the will of the hubs. /12

All outcomes are led, by hubs, and retrospectively attributed to 'the people'. Or to 'the market', in today's terms. Churches are hubs, it's where conservatives learned these techniques from originally. /13

It was a partnership. Churches have millennia of experience at mobilising populations. And that's not a criticism. Getting the 'good word' out was key to creating Western civilisation. /14 https://t.co/rzokcqKXnU

Church v State is the team sport at the centre of our entire civilisation. it never stopped. Gaza, today. And the various alliances being brought into the light. /15

Underneath all of our 'modern', secular' societies are much deeper, tectonic currents that never stopped operating. All about who will control societies. Churches or States. /16

I'm agnostic as to which team to back there. Secular States have a woeful record of failure on many metrics. Over 100 million people died in secular wars in the 20th century alone. /17

And the US now feels a bit like The Handmaid's Tale, absolutely. Those deep currents are resurfacing. Social media of course is a master of networking too, and doesn't necessarily have skin in this old battle. /18

Which is why it's so dangerous. Both churches and States at least have centuries of experience in the complex issues societies face. Social media couldn't care less about any of that. /19

It takes the basic social contagion model and strips it right back to naked and goal-less popularity. Which it then monetises. Our societies are increasingly transacted on these platforms. /20

Without any of the checks and balances big institutions like churches and States spent most of our history developing. We mostly don't end climate change and Covid because of social media. /21

Existing State (politicians) and Church-based people have successfully piggybacked off this new networking methodology. It will eat them both alive. Naked populism believes in NOTHING. /22

It's social contagion harnessed purely for wealth and power. Why you will see social media platform owners fight tooth and nail against any regulation. /23

These platforms are a corrosive destructive force now at the heart of our democracies. And yes, I'm using them. You can criticise bad driving, while still driving a car. /24

As Edmund Burke spent his whole adult life trying to show, it's our institutions that protect us and give us longevity. Not leaders. Not the hubs. The old-fashioned basics. Church and State, and their associated sub-institutions. /end