Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

The rise of modern capitalism created and reflected the industrial technological revolution. The technology of the steam engine, coal, oil and gas energy grids, and machinery, the railroads, automotive technology, and the telegram and telephone were all essential technological changes enabling the creation of the factory and industrial mass production. The new industrial technology shaped the nature of productive relations in the machine age, making possible both industrial production itself in the factory and the distribution of supplies and goods that sustained productive and market relations. Vast concentrations of capital and corporate power crystallized in the Robber Baron era of the late 19th century. This was an era of sociopathic accumulation that dehumanized and exploited workers, while creating gaping inequality. The labor unions that arose in its wake created a powerful corrective that also nurtured class solidarity and a sense of the common good.

The shift to post-industrialism was associated with the rise of a powerful new set of capitalist elites and new corporate centers of production, finance, and communication. In the 21st century, Silicon Valley became the symbol of the new post-industrial high-tech world. It would become the showcase of the new high-tech companies, such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple, which were becoming the first trillion-dollar companies, led by tycoons such as Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Peter Thiel, all fabulously wealthy members of the Big Tech power elite. Silicon Valley introduced itself as a modern miracle, bringing unprecedented new productivity and prosperity that would benefit both owners and workers, and contribute to the betterment of the general population with magical new products such as the personal computer, the iPhone, and the new internet-based world of online culture and communication on social media. This new world revolutionized the economic and social spheres, while also having major uses and implication for politics and the military. Because billions of........

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