'The Square and the Tower': Niall Ferguson in Barcelona

The phenomenon of social networks is one of the great disruptive fronts coupled with the digital revolution. Through profiles on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, billions of people constantly interact, sharing information of all kinds. These are anarchic and voluntary relationships, but they follow certain rules and patterns – we don't randomly choose who we follow – and they increasingly have a definitive influence on a wide variety of topics, to the point that Trump's election in 2016 cannot be understood without the power of social networks and the possibility they offer politicians to connect directly with voters. In his latest book, The Square and the Tower (Debate, 2018), the Scottish historian and Stanford professor Niall Ferguson sets out to explore the interaction between hierarchical, vertical power, exercised by Kings, governments, and parties; and the power of the network, horizontal, exercised by flatter organizations and movements, without a clear command node. Hence also the metaphor between the tower, a symbol of vertical power, and the square, a symbol of this horizontal power, where we trade and communicate. Ferguson's purpose is twofold. On the one hand, he conducts a very interesting analysis of network theory – that is, what are the dynamics and rules that explain their behavior – and how it helps explain history; and, second, he provides perspective on the phenomenon of Facebook and other similar ones whose dynamics and consequences have occurred before in history. As Eric Schmidt has summarized, "Niall Ferguson has given Silicon Valley the history lesson it needed".The text begins with the case of the Illuminati, one of the first networks – in this case in the form of a secret society – that questioned and challenged some of the classic institutions of power. Also, the author addresses other powerful analogies to exemplify the effects of networks, especially when it comes to exercising political power, but not only. Ferguson uses the fundamentals of network theory to better understand phenomena such as the American Revolution, the fall of Nixon, also the international success of his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger (of whom the author is in the process of writing a two-volume biography), to better understand the plot of Shakespeare's complex work Hamlet, or how he compares Gutenberg's invention of the printing press with Zuckerberg's Facebook. The dialectic that Ferguson establishes between the tower and the square travels along some common paths related to the classic opposition between State (vertical) and market (horizontal), even with the fragile/antifragile theses exposed by Taleb. However, the author establishes a clear distinction between both terms, the latter, markets, being a particular type of network, one of the most sophisticated. But there are many other networks whose dynamics do not depend on prices. Al Qaeda, for example, or the aforementioned Illuminati, are powerful reticular forces that have nothing to do with the markets described in economics books. Perhaps one of the most powerful and illuminating parts of the book for the current moment is when, by focusing the study on these informal powers, phenomena such as the rise of Trump are analyzed, whose election (already in the primaries) cannot be understood without his now famous Twitter account that allowed him to bypass, first the Republican party apparatus, and then, as a candidate for the White House, the American mass media. Trump's team knew how to profit from the advantageous use of social networks dominated by sentimentalism and by clear and forceful messages where connections are determined, primarily and basically, by likes and dislikes, reinforced by the very functioning of the algorithms that control these digital networks. In this sense, social networks help to polarize the debate and generate a fertile framework for politicians like Trump (or like Rufián or Iglesias in Spain) to have much more appeal than those who seek nuance and the truth of things. In short, a refreshing book that invites reflection on the implications of an increasingly complex and interconnected world, while shedding light on the importance of horizontal powers that often remain out of frame, their influence leaves fewer clues and records in archives and libraries in contrast to the more obvious hierarchical powers, but their influence is fundamental to understanding our past and present. A fun and clarifying book.