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

seems to play well together.

[fish_in_the_c]

There are certain inherent problems with the ideology commonly called socialism and communism and capitalism respectively.
But the basic problem of balancing out the individual within and against the context of the whole remains.

I only know of one organization that has really proposed a lot of well though out solutions and technology certainly can help get us there.
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_01051991_centesimus-annus_en.html [vatican.va]

Re:Nothing new, but encouraging

[Anonymous Coward]

Quoth eldavojohn:

So why do we move back to a stupid argument between the absolutes of Capitalism vs Communism when the correct solution is somewhere to be found in the middle?

Quoth eldavojohn.
He supports compromise only when it backs up his argument.

Plus 5, T8ol7)

[Anonymous Coward]

ASSOCIATION OF` progress. Any another folder. 20 all over America The public eye: users of NetBSD and distract1on going to continue, To you by Penisbird

Re:no.

[d3ac0n]

Not so.

Capitalism as an economic system is largely Anarchical in that there is no single entity controlling economic exchange. Capitalism relies on market forces to control exchange and commerce, and works very, very well. Indeed, when one attempts to provide a central controller, Capitalism's self-order very quickly breaks down

You can see this at work in our current economic slump, caused by meddling in market forces by government agencies, and furthered by continued meddling and "bailoutism".

Re:Nothing new, but encouraging

[Anonymous Coward]

Philosophy long ago stopped trying to find ways to solve peoples problems. "I think therefore I am" came about when DeCarte decided he couldn't figure out if he actually existed or not. Most philosophy since has been drivel about insignificant crap that most people have no control over anyway. In fact, you could say that we here in the US went to Superheroes because people who could fly and had superhuman strength made more sense than what the philosophers were putting out.