{"id":428,"date":"2025-05-26T22:29:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T22:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caesarsbox.com\/?p=428"},"modified":"2025-05-26T22:29:01","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T22:29:01","slug":"ancient-rome-still-resonates-in-the-21st-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/caesarsbox.com\/?p=428","title":{"rendered":"Ancient Rome still resonates in the 21st Century"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Why are web platforms turning into bunkers and internment camps?Ted Gioia<\/a>
May 26<\/a>\u00a0

\u00a0<\/a>Around the year 250, people in the Roman Empire started building walls. And it happened everywhere.What was going on?Not long before, cities had spread over open territory. People could enter or leave easily. They felt safe. But now, over the course of just a few years, everything changed.\u201cBy the end of the third century every sizeable city within the empire had acquired a wall,\u201d explains historian Adrian Goldsworthy. \u201cAlmost all were very thick,\u201d he adds.

This happened even in Rome itself. Emperor Aurelian built a huge wall\u2014more than twelve miles in length and almost twenty feet high. Most of the city was now safely enclosed.<\/a>A surviving section of Emperor Aurelian\u2019s walls (Source<\/a>)But this didn\u2019t make things safer for citizens, and least of all for the emperor. Aurelian was murdered\u2014as was almost every other emperor during the course of that unstable century.

During the middle decades of the third century, more than 60 people claimed the title of emperor. Some only survived a few weeks before getting killed.The murderers were usually those guarding the emperor. Good luck fixing that with a wall.But that didn\u2019t stop the enthusiasm for building fortresses. And the people who built them weren\u2019t foolish. In a world of armed encampments, you need one yourself\u2014or you will get destroyed.And that reminds me of our own times.<\/a>Castles walls in Brittany (Source: Chatsam\/Wikimedia Commons<\/a>)

People are in love with walls nowadays. That became clear in the recent US election.But the clamor for barriers and isolationism isn\u2019t just an American phenomenon. The wall mentality is everywhere. And it\u2019s not just physical walls, even invisible ones keep getting erected\u2014just consider all the visa and entry requirements for international travel.I can\u2019t even visit England without a visa nowadays. Just a few years ago, that would have seemed absurd. Not it\u2019s just standard practice.But there\u2019s another place where people are obsessed with walls and fortresses. I\u2019m talking about the worldwide web.They really should change the name to\u00a0worldwide walls<\/em>.

Because every digital platform is now run by its own authoritarian emperor, who is hellbent on building bunkers and barriers.By the way, they are also doing this in their private lives. Even Emperor Aurelian never dreamed of protection as extreme as a web billionaire\u2019s getaway home.<\/a>What\u2019s next in tech home design? Centurions in full garb? Gladiator games? Feeding under-performing managers to the lions?I don\u2019t even want to speculate.But I can\u2019t ignore this\u2014because these digital dictators are doing the exact same thing to web users. They dream of locking us up permanently in their online encampments.I recently wrote about the strange phenomenon of the\u00a0\u201csearch engine that doesn\u2019t want you to search.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Google has actually been able to\u00a0reduce clicking on links by more than a third<\/a>.This is crazy.The entire purpose of a search engine is connecting you with the rest of the web. But Google is so obsessed with keeping people locked up in its fortress, that it undermines its own basic business proposition.\u201cNot long ago, people surfed the web. Now it\u2019s more like\u00a0The Shawshank Redemption<\/em>.

\u201dInstead of connecting you, it wants to serve up pre-digested AI answers\u2014almost as if it were envious of Quora. Sure, the results suck, but that doesn\u2019t matter. The key thing on the web now is holding people in captivity.A few days later, Apple confirmed that Google searches are now falling on its Safari browser.\u00a0\u201cThat has never happened in 22 years,\u201d said Apple\u2019s Eddy Cue<\/a>.Google\u2019s share price fell 7.5% on this news,\u00a0losing $150 billion in market value<\/a>\u00a0over the course of a few hours.But they don\u2019t care. They don\u2019t want customers, they want prisoners. And so they keep building walls.The same thing is happening at every social media site.Not long ago, I posted links to my Substack articles on Twitter and Facebook\u2014and occasionally on Threads and Bluesky. But I rarely bother doing that anymore.These platforms hate links\u2014or anything that might let captives escape from their digital dungeon. The algorithm brutally punishes any post that might tempt somebody to look elsewhere.Not long ago, people surfed the web. Now it\u2019s more like\u00a0The Shawshank Redemption<\/em>. You\u2019re lucky if they let you out in the prison yard for a few minutes of exercise under armed supervision.There\u2019s heavy irony in how Elon Musk\u00a0brags about his support of citizen journalism<\/a>.

The reality is that he works to undermine any journalist who operates outside of his fortress.If he can\u2019t monetize it, he hates it. Monetization is even more important to him than his political or ideological commitments.That\u2019s not citizen journalism. It\u2019s just another billionaire\u2019s bunker. Anyone who tries to breach the walls of his prison is censored or shadowbanned or algorithmically isolated.And that\u2019s why the digital dictators have\u00a0prioritized the endless scroll<\/a>\u2014built on short, dumb videos. These stupid video clips have no connection to the original purpose of social media, namely connecting you with friends, family, and other people. But, like Google, the social media platforms don\u2019t care.They have lost interest in anything except holding people captive.Just try leaving these digital internment camps\u2014and see for yourself. It\u2019s like\u00a0Escape from Alcatraz 2.0.<\/em>When Mark Zuckerberg launched Threads\u2014his Twitter alternative\u2014he wanted to bring people over from Instagram. But few realized that they couldn\u2019t delete their Threads data without shutting down their Instagram account.And Threads tracks lots of data. Even the KGB never imposed this much surveillance.<\/a>Some people simply refuse to join these platforms.

But that doesn\u2019t work\u2014Facebook actually creates shadow accounts of non-members<\/a>, and still compiles information on them.You literally can\u2019t escape.Silicon Valley tracks you everywhere you go. Apps and smartphones are like ankle bracelets for felons, except that your sentence never ends.In the late third century, even peaceful people needed a fortress. And the same is true now.That\u2019s why indie operators like me are also constructing our own digital walls.

But we need that for survival in this ugly new environment.People sometimes ask me why I have a paywall for some of my articles. I explain that I have no choice.I previously wrote for periodicals that shared my articles online for free\u2014and we both got paid via advertising. But Google has put almost every one of them out of business.Alphabet swallowed up all the ad revenues from A to Z. Ten thousand newspapers disappeared\u2014but in Silicon Valley they don\u2019t worry about collateral damage to the culture.Just last week, Google made this\u00a0absolutely<\/em>\u00a0clear. In 2024, they prevented legislation requiring them to compensate publishers by promising to fund indie journalism. But they have now changed their mind.<\/a>Ted Gioia\u00a01dLast year, Google promised to fund local journalism\u2014in order to prevent a California law requiring compensation to publishers. But this is now turning into a another deception from Silicon Valley.

https:\/\/www.mediapost.com\/publications\/article\/406102\/google-cuts-funding-for-california-newsrooms.htmlhttps:\/\/www.mediapost.com\/publications\/article\/406102\/google-cuts-funding-for-california-newsrooms.html\"\"31\"\"\"\"8\"\"That\u2019s why writers and other creatives need their own paywalls.I try to be judicious\u2014and still allow free access to around 65% of what I write. But I can\u2019t go back to the old ways, because the people running Twitter, Google, Facebook, and other digital platforms have destroyed that world.They would also destroy Substack if they could. They just haven\u2019t figured out how to do it (yet). Let\u2019s hope they never do.So what\u2019s next?In the late stages of the Roman Empire, people started wearing suits of armor when they journeyed far from the castle. Maybe that will happen in Silicon Valley too.We already have billionaire bunkers, so perhaps Zuckerberg, Musk, and Bezos will soon enclose themselves in heavy metal, like medieval knights.<\/a>Will tech titans start wearing suits of armor like medieval knights? (Source<\/a>)

When I think of it, their fetish for astronaut suits is already a step in that direction.This can\u2019t possibly be a smart long-term strategy.Just look at what happened when the Romans put all their energy into building walls.You might think that this led to more internal cooperation\u2014after all, people inside the fortress really ought to work together. But the number of civil wars and homemade assassinations skyrocketed during this same period.It seems that locking people together in a bunker makes them hate each other. Perhaps you\u2019ve noticed something similar in our walled-in countries and web platforms.The prison metaphor is, once again, an apt one. You\u2019re not safer when you\u2019re locked behind bars. That\u2019s actually the most dangerous place of them all.Here\u2019s something else that happened when the Romans built their walls: Trade collapsed. This has been documented by the archeological evidence.In a world of barricades and obstacles, you can\u2019t count on supplies from the external world. So you have to be totally self-sufficient.Have you noticed that happening today? Have you heard the word\u00a0tariff<\/em>\u00a0in the news, by any chance?The economic penalty of imposed self-sufficiency is enormous. Things that could be easily acquired through partnership, trade, or cooperation must now be built from scratch inside each bunker.This leads to a tremendous drain on resources and unnecessary duplication.The tech billionaires are living examples of this. Each tech dictatorship wants to control its own chatbot, launch its own video channel, fly to outer space on its own rocket.And what\u2019s our role as tech users? As the name suggests, we exist to be\u00a0used<\/em>.Some of us, however, are starting to rebel.I rarely post on social media anymore. I don\u2019t rely on Google as often as before. I buy fewer items from Amazon now, and have started to shop directly with indie online retailers.I\u2019m not the only one. Many of you are doing the same.The people running these digital encampments are already losing users and killing loyalty. Sooner or later, they will realize that prison warden is not a cool job.Maybe they should do some research on all that wall-building during the third century. Back then, the shift of resources into creating bunkers and fortresses was a sign of decline. Even the wall-builders got punished.I suspect that the same will happen to those who persist in building worldwide walls today, whether in the world at large or on the digital highways.Honestly, I\u2019d rather be surfing the web, and not plotting an escape from Shawshank. Maybe that will happen again.In the meantime, get ready to bunker down.

Invite your friends and earn rewardsIf you enjoy The Honest Broker, share it with your friends and earn rewards when they subscribe.Invite Friends<\/a>\u00a0Like<\/a>Comment<\/a>Restack<\/a>\u00a0\u00a9 2025\u00a0Ted Gioia
548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104
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