The greater the outreach of social media, the greater the spread of false or manipulated news. Since antiquity, the practice has been for false news to be propagated  about ongoing events in order to influence and manipulate people.

Today, the methods by which this can be done have become enormous in scope and they are being used without compunction.

What’s worse is that technologically, this capacity to run disinformation will continue to grow at a faster pace than ever before. It does not seem like the technical capability and the means by which it could be monitored have been growing as fast.

The temptation is growing to roll back and break up newly developed modes of social media communtcation as soon as they emerge. That would be a mistake. Firstly because one doubts whether such a target could be validly accomplished in the framework of a fuctioning democratic governance. And secondly because it is also doubtful whether in the same democratic enviroment, authorities will be able to effectively counter the efforts that will be carried out to evade the democratically established controls.                  

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THE NEW IS YET TO COME

Naturally, a successful political vision has to refer to a radiant future in which new things will happen. Beyond the rhetoric that is employed in mass political gatherings, the question that then arises is how in practice such a vision is going to be implemented.

Short of a revolution, that in the wake of a democratic election has never happened or endured as far as I know, the “new” that arrives to govern must build on what is already there. For this, it needs the support whether enthusiastic or lukewarm of the existing economic and social establishment, which might be ready to give it welcome or the contrary. Even when the establishment shows itself to be hostile to the new people in charge, one way or the other the two sides come to understand they had better reach some modus vivendi. And mostly that’s how matters develop.

It happened quite often in this country and I think so the story will continue. Which is why the claim about the new continues to be made: the new “new” is yet to come!

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CONTROLS

Year in, year out, the government apparatus has increasingly gotten cluttered with agencies, companies, corporations, authorities and one does not know what else, all financed from the state budget. They give the appearance of being independent bodies but they are not. Their functions extend from the economy to social, cultural, regulatory infrastructural and other sectors.

Is a strategic and compact overview being maintained over these institutions, not least by way of their expenditures and the obligations they assume? The statements made in the budget and the documents attached to it do not provide sufficient information by which to acquire a global and detailed picture of how monies allocated to them are being spent and of the results they have achieved.

One would hope though that this kind of overview is regularly conducted every year. For there always comes the moment when a government, any government, must decide that it needs to change the thrust of how “its” financial resources are being spent. For this to be done meaningfully, it needs to have a clear picture of how, why and where funds are being spent and of where they are achieving results, where not.