Dot-Communism Is Already Here

thanosk sends in a story at Wired Magazine about how online culture is, in many ways, trending toward communal behavior. Sharing and collaboration have become staples of active participation on the Internet, while not necessarily incorporating a particular ideology or involving a government. "Most people in the West, including myself, were indoctrinated with the notion that extending the power of individuals necessarily diminishes the power of the state, and vice versa. In practice, though, most polities socialize some resources and individualize others. Most free-market economies have socialized education, and even extremely socialized societies allow some private property. Rather than viewing technological socialism as one side of a zero-sum trade-off between free-market individualism and centralized authority, it can be seen as a cultural OS that elevates both the individual and the group at once. The largely unarticulated but intuitively understood goal of communitarian technology is this: to maximize both individual autonomy and the power of people working together. Thus, digital socialism can be viewed as a third way that renders irrelevant the old debates."

Comments

Re:Communal != Communism

[Anonymous Coward]

Not necessarilly. Bullshitism would certainly make a nice name for the topic the article could be filed under.

Re:Nothing new, but encouraging

[MyLongNickName]

Ummm....how did the Hulk service others, exactly?

By defeating the Iron Sheik.

Re:Nothing new, but encouraging

[AKAImBatman]

I thought that the majority of Americans have come to terms that absolute Communism and absolute Capitalism are both bad systems?

Who said anything about Capitalism? I was referring to the general culture of the US. The culture of individual empowerment that makes the empowerment of the greater whole possible. Of which "Capitalism" as it has been named is merely a side effect of how such a culture operates economically, not a system in of itself.

I'm sorry you have wasted your time on such a long and pointless rant.

I can't believe I'm saying it, but..

[dyingtolive]

from the no-in-soviet-russia-jokes-i-swear-to-god dept.

In soviet Russia, god swears to you?

Re:Communal != Communism

[harry666t]

Hmmm... Would libertarianism mean "being forced to do whatever you want to"?

Re:Nothing new, but encouraging

[Red Flayer]

Ummm....how did the Hulk service others, exactly?

Without getting into specifics, let's just say that the Hulk's anatomy was affected everywhere, and there is a large subset of the Marvel Universe that has trouble sitting down to this day.

Re:The problem with Communism

[SQL Error]

There's nothing wrong with owning a resource in common - for example people in certain states resort to owning "shares" of a cow in order to legally get raw milk (you know, the stuff your grandparents drank without worry).

My grandparents are dead.

Coincidence? I think not.

Re:no.

[Sockatume]

I think you'll find there's a delicious genetic distinction to be made there.

Re:Nothing new, but encouraging

[genner]

If you don't like it, real Strawberry Shortcake.

That sugar laddend tramp is responsible for creating half the fat chicks in the world.