But they also knew that effective government was essential for the preservation of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The conventional wisdom is that the era of big government is over, but no one has yet articulated what will take its place. Clearly, change is needed. Today, barely a quarter do. Of the many possible reasons for this, the one Nye gives the most weight to is the Information Revolution itself, what he calls the third industrial revolution.
People then blame the government rather than the deeper economic and historical forces.
One problem with all this, according to Nye, is that if people generally believe that government should not be trusted, they won't provide the resources government needs. Without the resources, government can't perform. If government can't perform, people will become more dissatisfied and more distrustful of it. In an Information Age environment, government clearly must embrace continuous change as a fundamental process. Change must be central to its very existence.