Made in China, Exported to the World: The Surveillance State
I grew up in a third-world country, and I&#x27;ve noticed a palpable shift in the moods of my educated, middle-class friends and family back home.<p>People in many third-world countries have been fed the line that democracy is the correct form of government. 
This isn&#x27;t accidental: the soft power of Hollywood and the myth of American exceptionalism have been powerful incentives to have faith in the ability of democratic institutions to improve lives: it&#x27;s an odd form of cargo-cultism, and if you are a believer in freedom and democracy, a &quot;helpful delusion&quot;. The educated elites in third world democracies have recoiled from the notion of authoritarianism, and from the idea of having every aspect of their lives surveilled for safety.<p>Political events in the US, the rise of social media, and the risks of virality unexpectedly unleashing mob chaos have made them a lot more wary. Openness and the exchange of ideas exposes the worst of human nature: the trolls whose ideas are magnified by algorithms seeking to capture attention. The propagandists and bots with their massive reach are noticed by educated people, who can see how powerless or unwilling social networks and governments are to stop them. It doesn&#x27;t matter whether the propagandists succeed or not-their mere unfettered existence is enough to disturb people.<p>With the weakening of democratic norms, other options are suddenly back on the table. As people  have theoretically become freer, they seem to seek more security. Blanketing a city with CCTV seems to be a pragmatic trade-off for personal safety. The censorship of China seems to be attractive because of the endless hateful noise of social media, the orderliness of having criminals removed from society permanently via the death penalty suddenly seems attractive. The lesser-educated never really cared for abstract notions of liberty anyway. In short, the authoritarian surveillance state is an increasingly attractive proposition to large swathes of humanity.