Naked Politics: Partisan Data Mining and Open Government

“Institutions are becoming naked, and if you're going to be naked … fitness is no longer optional. If you're going to be naked, you better get buff.” — Don Tapscott

"Political parties are increasing their surveillance, are increasing their data collection and it's only going to get worse," he said.

Of course a narrow focus on micro-targeting voters over niche issues relevant specifically to them will result in unsustainable, rag-tag policy solutions.  Nobody's doing narrative any more, they're doing one-offs - to our collective detriment.

But that's not the main piece of interest in this.  It's that the powers that be seem to be missing the fact that, as the public becomes increasingly susceptible to personalized persuasion techniques, the reverse is true too.

What happens when the successes of individuals and organizations get so densely interwoven that they cannot hope to rise or fall in isolation.

Exactly.  

Which is why committing sociology is really just smart business.