My faith in the digital revolution just took a beating. I still have a relationship with it, but it’s getting complicated. You see, it’s not giving me what it promised. It assured me a stress-free entertainment experience tailored specifically to my unique needs and tastes. But it hasn’t delivered.
I’m talking about algorithms - those (... um ... whatever they are) that keep track of your shopping and entertainment choices and then make insightful suggestions for your further delectation and delight. Well, my algorithms have messed up badly. Usually, they do OK. I finish watching a Norwegian murder mystery on Netflix, and the algorithms assume I want to spend my next hundred hours binging on Scandi-Noir cinema. So, it suggests more murderous mayhem on blood-soaked snow.
But this week they got it wrong. Actually it wasn’t Netflix’s algorithms, but Amazon’s. I’d been reading the blurb about some good, wholesome Christian book on Amazon.com, deciding whether to buy it or not. I then glanced at the section of the webpage that makes recommendations based on my interests. And there it was. This shocking and improper suggestion. For some ungodly reason the algorithms told me I’d really like a
book called “The 48 Laws of Power” by Robert Greene.
Wanting to be polite to the algorithms and show gratitude for their hard work on my behalf, I dutifully clicked on “The 48 Laws of Power” and was stunned to find it is all about how to manipulate, control, and destroy other people. It’s based on the charming careers of, among other megalomaniacs, Machiavelli. Chapters had headings like: ‘Never put too much trust in friends’, ‘Learn how to use enemies’, ‘Conceal your intentions’, ‘Get others to do the work for you, but always take the credit’, ‘Learn to keep people dependent on you’, ‘Use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim’, ‘Pose as a friend but work as a spy’, ‘Crush your enemy totally’, ‘Keep others in suspended terror’, and so on.
I read some reviews of the book to see if it was a satire on devilish leadership styles, but it wasn’t. It was straight-up what it claimed to be – an amoral guide to getting what you want with your power. It was published nearly 30 years ago, but it is still in print and has sold several million copies.
Its popularity shouldn’t surprise us. Many people and institutions believe that power is for using to get what you want. Threaten, lie, manipulate – whatever you can do to meet your goals is fine. Of course, this is exactly the opposite of Jesus’ understanding of power. For Christ, power is for giving away. If God has given you some then you treat it like a precious gift – to bless others, knowing that you will give an accounting of how you used it. Power, says God, is for scattering around, just as greatness is shown in serving. May our algorithms speak of God’s values.