Self-regulation failed so spectacularly to conquer human nature that
its demise gave rise to the most intrusive statal stratagems ever
devised.
In both the UK and the USA, the government is much more heavily and
pervasively involved in the minutia of accountancy, stock dealing, and
banking than it was only two years ago.
But the ethos and myth of "order out of chaos" - with its proponents in
the exact sciences as well - ran deeper than that. The very culture of
commerce was thoroughly permeated and transformed. It is not surprising
that the Internet - a chaotic network with an anarchic modus operandi -
flourished at these times.
The dotcom revolution was less about technology than about new ways of
doing business - mixing umpteen irreconcilable ingredients, stirring
well, and hoping for the best. No one, for instance, offered a linear
revenue model of how to translate "eyeballs" - i.e., the number of
visitors to a Web site - to money ("monetizing"). It was dogmatically
held to be true that, miraculously, traffic - a chaotic phenomenon -
will translate to profit - hitherto the outcome of painstaking labor.
Privatization itself was such a leap of faith.
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