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The Next Social Revolution?
Cryofan writes "In a recent interview, Howard Rheingold (author of Smart Mobs) discussed the possibility of a 'new economic system' born of 'unconscious cooperation' embodied by such technologies as Google links and Amazon lists, Wikipedia, wireless devices using unlicensed spectrum, Web logs, and open-source software. Rheingold speculates that 'the technology of the Internet, reputation systems, online communities, mobile devices...may make some new economic system possible....We had markets, then we had capitalism, and socialism was a reaction to industrial-era capitalism. There's been an assumption that since communism failed, capitalism is triumphant, therefore humans have stopped evolving new systems for economic production.' However, Rheingold is worried that established companies with business models that are threatened by these new technologies could 'quash such nascent innovations as file-sharing -- and potentially put the U.S. at risk of falling behind the rest of the world.'"
...but Hitler also called himself a christian.
You mean he wasn't? He sure seemed like a good Christian: he killed people who didn't agree with his viewpoint (like the Catholic Church did to those who said the earth revolved around the sun, or like anti-abortionists do now). He killed people who didn't believe the same religion as him (just like the Christians did in the Crusades). How exactly did he go against normal Christianity?
but Hitler called himself a christian.
Really? Can you point to a source for this? Hitler took a pretty active role in supressing the Catholic and Protestant churches in Germany. Besides which, claiming to be a Christian can be a political convenience.
For some reason this seems to happen a lot in the US. All US presidents have been "Christians", the current incumbent being one of the more outspoken ones.
meh
The concept behind this "Next Social Revoloution" or "unconscious cooperation" is no more than the current American economic system in place today. The unconscious cooperation is inherently Captitalism because it is based off of greed (not a bad thing neccessarily). The P2P networks are merely a source for information at cheap cost (e.g. Internet Connection), that is benifical to the end user. This is no different then a Capitalism, the best product at the lowest relative cost wins out. In this case P2P is cheap, and gives the best product relative to price (e.g. not the greatest video as far as quality, however low price). This "new social revoloution" as described is no more then hipe words in a headline used to draw attention to an inert idea.
America will not be left in the dust primarily because our constitution and economic system allow us a wide range of adaptation. This can be seen in the first few decades of the 20th Century. In the beginning, of the 20th Century we had a Conservative president. This was due to wide economic success, and the need for the growth of business with out government inhabition. This allowed an acceletated growth until the economy began to slow down with the destabalization of America's economic market in Europe, and a more Liberal president was elected due to low economic success, and the need for economic assistance to the poor. The government and economy the adapted to create a thriving war infrastructure that led to a boom in the years after, and the election of Conservative president. This cycle continues throughout the 20th century and will more than likely continue into the 21st. This cycle shows the U.S's ability to change in the advent of poor economic conditions to a different platform and government operation. If a radical change in world economy would happen, the U.S. would adapt with a different style of government which is is allowed by our Constitution. This basically sums up to the sheer fact in the United States that if you don't adapt, you die.
Capitalism thrives on the best, and dies from the worst, if a business choses to attempt to squash a P2P network then something else will be created. This is the spawn of the Open Source network, and the internet. These systems which thrive the most in the United States will continue to work because there are platforms in the United States for them to. The sheer concept behind a new economy in the nature of P2P spawned from Capitalism (yes, Google and Amazon were spawned from Capitalism and still use it) defeating Capitalsim is idiotic. These new industries have become successfull because they are the best, and they work on the Capitalist system as such. They thrive on a market of capitalism, and without the consumer buying that new book, or searching for a product\service\information none of these services would exist !
I thought that the end goal of a Buddhist was utter destruction, being part of the "god". That end goal isn't real appealing to me.