In this YouTube monologue, Tom Guarriello, Ph.D., reflects on the emerging eNation movement championed by Perry Urban, Ken Argi, and others. He draws a historical parallel to 1775 Connecticut, illustrating how information scarcity once gave market power to sellers. Guarriello contrasts that past with today’s internet era, where billions of people have instant access to pricing, reviews, and data—shifting power to consumers. He uses personal anecdotes about buying a 1970 Chevy Nova versus modern car‑shopping with online resources, and everyday examples like checking restaurant reviews on a phone, to demonstrate how collective online information empowers decision‑making. He urges viewers to visit the new eNation website, contribute ideas, and join the conversation, emphasizing that the movement is still in its infancy but has the potential to reshape how information and power are distributed in society.
Chapters
Guys, it's Tom. You know, you've been hearing maybe some things about this eNation idea that Perry Urban and Ken Argi have been making videos about. Joe Rawl, bunch of us have been having conversations about these ideas. And it occurred to me this morning that, you know, Sometimes when you're in the early stages, or maybe not so early stages, of a revolution, it has to feel weird. Could you imagine what it would be like, what it must have been like to have lived in— I'm here in Connecticut— what it must have been like to live here in Connecticut in, say, 1775? I'm sure there were a lot of things swirling around, you know, when you, when, when people went to markets and went places where they congregated and, and met with their fellows. I'm sure there was a lot of stuff going on about, you know, things aren't going well, this, this, you know, it needs changes, need to be made. And, you know, eventually Not too long after, big changes were made. Now, on the eNation front, I think one of the things that's hard to, to remember is that we're in a situation now where the power that used to exist solely in the hands of the suppliers of goods and services the companies, where that power was based upon— often was based upon a scarcity of information. Think about what it was like to go buy a car when I first started buying cars. The first car that I ever bought was a 1970 Chevy Nova. Now, I didn't know what that car cost the dealer. I didn't know what a good price was for that car. What I knew was this: the car dealer had lots and lots of information about that car that I didn't have. The car dealer presented me with information about that car that they wanted me to have— the sticker price— and my job was to try not to get fleeced too badly. I'm sure in some of the car deals that I made, I succeeded marginally, and I'm sure in others of the car deals that I made, I didn't succeed as well. What is it like today to go buy a car? You go online, you go to Edmunds Blue Book, you look at what that car costs, you look at what every option on that car costs, and you walk into that dealership today with a very formidable set of facts that help you in your negotiation with that car dealer. Now multiply that by a billion people. That's how many people are online right now, a billion of us. So when we talk about an eNation, we're not just talking about, you know, a girl like Kenner G's, uh, uh, depiction of us as a bunch of old hippies. There might be some truth to that, but the fact is there's a billion of us out there online today, and we are passing information back and forth to one another at the speed of this. This is how fast, and this is infancy. We're talking about baby steps compared to the amount of information that's going to be available. You're walking down the street, you see a restaurant, you have your cell phone, you look at your cell phone and you say, I wonder whether or not this is a good restaurant. Let me see if I can check out the reviews of that restaurant and find out about it. Ah, this restaurant sucks. Look at how many people hated this restaurant. Oh, this restaurant's not bad. Pretty good value for the money. That's the kind of power that resides in the billion people who are currently online. Now, you have ideas about what that eNation might be like. Kenner G asked you to put your ideas over on the, uh, the eNation, the new eNation site that's been formed. You want to go over there and take a look? Go on over there and take a look. See what's going on. Get your ideas into the conversation. There's a lot of power that resides in this billion people some small fraction of which is here on YouTube right now, making one another aware that there's big changes afoot and we're all part of those changes. So come on, jump into the conversation and, uh, let's see if we can get this thing to be more than just a bunch of old hippies talking to one another. All right, take it easy, talk to you soon. Bye.
