In the meantime we may be witnessing the emergence of new power in areas other than businesses or states, as the information revolution is strengthening individual brainpower and fundamentally changing the way we think and act. Geeks are so indispensable that business enterprises and governments cannot fire them regardless of how they behave or how they dress. The power to control society that once was in the hands of governments, big businesses, and mass media is now held by netizens. They can disseminate messages without being censored by the government. Musicians can upload original songs on the web for their fans to download freely and directly by bypassing record companies.
Day traders can disrupt the stock market.
Now they cannot only earn money their own way, but they also possess new political power themselves. Some NPO activists are expressing hope that this new process may be able to correct excessive economic globalization and eventually lead to a kind of civil accountability with new ways of redressing the balance by checking the power of multi-national corporations as well as governments and by expressing and enforcing what they think are social values. In short, they are hoping that they can create a new form of governance, i.e., civil governance. The source of new power is intellectual empowerment, as opposed to past military and economic power. In future politics, persuasion and intellectual influence will become the main means for mutual control.