We might think we know a thing or two about epidemics : how quickly they can take hold; how suddenly they change everything. But when caught up in such an all-encompassing phenomenon – whether pathological or cultural – it can be hard to consider what turns it from a smattering of examples to a wave flooding the whole world. And going even further back in the chain of events, do we ever stop to wonder how someone might identify these driving factors before they whir into motion, and use them to their advantage? In Revenge of the Tipping Point, Canadian journalist Malcolm Gladwell asks this very question, developing and challenging his 2000 debut bestseller, The Tipping Point.
That book, which pored forensically over the internal mechanics which cause ideas, trends and behaviours to suddenly explode, became something of an epidemic itself, giving rise to a new genre of accessible social science books and becoming, as Gladwell puts it, part of “the zeitgeist”. Twenty-five years later, Gladwell has decided to reexamine his own ideas with “a very different set of eyes” belonging to a less upbeat age; to zoom out and look more cynically at the bigger picture. “If the world can be moved by the slightest push, then the person who knows where and when to push has real power,” he writes.
“So who are those people? What are their intentions? What techniques are they using?” Revenge of the Tipping Point sees a familiar interweaving of anecdote and research to mine the.
