KnThe State is no longer able to protect people and propertyowledge- the major stake in the worldwide competition for powe

 Knowledge in the form of an informational commodity indispensable to productive power is already, and will continue to be, a major—perhaps the major—stake in the worldwide competition for power. (Postmodern Condition, 5)

One need only see the decimation of the U.S.’s rust belt communities and the outsized economic and political role of Silicon Valley and the banking sectors in London and New York as proof of Lyotard’s claims. But these changes have another effect as well: these centers adjudicate what knowledge is, and one need only witness often fruitless attempts by humanities departments to prove themselves valuable to employers in the digital economy as evidence of this.

The State is no longer able to protect people and property”