Information Technology

For those political analysts whose main interest remains class divisions in society, the biggest split these days is that between those who control and work with informational technology (IT) and those who, we might still call, blue-collar workers. The old divisions of class have become a lot more difficult to apply, if not completely outdated. There's no escaping the enormous impact of information technology in the late 20th and, even more, the early 21st century, both economically and socially. During the scientific revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries, the spirit of the experiment was in the air, and those involved were practical people working to practical ends, often on their own or with a small group of trusted friends. Secrecy was important as there was money to be made into new inventions. What interested them were results, not theories. Most modern technological advances, however, were developed as theories first, and then made a reality by large teams of scientists and experts in the field. What we have now is that more and more of this type of expertise is being used to analyze and find solutions to all kinds of business and social problems, thus creating, in the eyes of the political analysts mentioned above, a whole new large economic and social class.