Facebook move hugely symbolic - The ebb and flow of power

London once had a Worshipful Company of Mercers and, among many others, a Worshipful Company of Skinners. The Worshipful Company of Pewterers has existed since 1348. Many of those bodies are not relevant today but their decline maps how technology and commercial imperatives changed our world.

Today, the Worshipful Company of Firefighters or Tax Advisers have a relevance skinners or pewterers no longer enjoy. Each profession peaks and ebbs as we evolve. The growth of influence of one process or another is a reliable guide to where real, self-accumulating power has moved.