Old systems break before new ones are in place

Interesting piece from Clay Shirky on the decline of newspapers. There's a lot there, but it's not too long [which is good], with three cuts below.

Round and round this goes, with the people committed to saving newspapers demanding to know “If the old model is broken, what will work in its place?” To which the answer is: Nothing. Nothing will work. There is no general model for newspapers to replace the one the internet just broke.

With the old economics destroyed, organizational forms perfected for industrial production have to be replaced with structures optimized for digital data. It makes increasingly less sense even to talk about a publishing industry, because the core problem publishing solves — the incredible difficulty, complexity, and expense of making something available to the public — has stopped being a problem.

.....

When someone demands to be told how we can replace newspapers, they are really demanding to be told that we are not living through a revolution. They are demanding to be told that old systems won’t break before new systems are in place. They are demanding to be told that ancient social bargains aren’t in peril, that core institutions will be spared, that new methods of spreading information will improve previous practice rather than upending it. They are demanding to be lied to.

Newspapers and thinking the unthinkable, Clay Shirky

Run with the above and rewrite the first and last paragraphs with the changes in italics .

Round and round this goes, with the people committed to saving the Washington Consensus demanding to know “If the old model is broken, what will work in its place?” To which the answer is: Nothing. Nothing will work. There is no general model for economics to replace the one the banking crisis just broke.

When someone demands to be told how we can replace the current system, they are really demanding to be told that we are not living through a revolution. They are demanding to be told that old systems won’t break before new systems are in place. They are demanding to be told that the existing world order isn't in peril, that core institutions will be spared, that new methods of assigning capital will improve previous practice rather than upending it. They are demanding to be lied to.