The Night Before Christmas

With the arrival of the Internet, the role of the ministry of culture has changed. As well as being the guardian of the arts, it seeks to monitor the Web. Whether it can do so successfully is one challenge, but another is that “culture” must be defined in a different way. It is not just a leisure activity, but the way in which we are learning how to think. The flow of digitalised information has de-stabilised the financial markets, overthrown dictatorships and exposed secrets of governments. But the extension in our powers to share and communicate opens out the prospect of a true cultural revolution, more open, global and democratic than in the past. Will it be allowed to happen?