Hegel foresaw a problem with the advanced liberal democracies of his day.  It is when the self interests of groups within the nation become more important than the principles that uphold the state itself.  He called it a "knot" that will need to worked out in the future.

Well the future has arrived and the problem remains. In fact it is much worse than in Hegel's day.  The Internet has fostered a return to tribalistic identity groups that threaten the very concept of the nation-state.

Media scholar Marshall McLuhan also saw this trend occurring, as the individual of the print age loses out to the group-think of the electronic age.  This episode explores how and why this is occurring, and what we can do about.  

Support the show