Re: Question 1--DEATH

where's DEATH went you actually want him/her/them?

david goldschmidt


—– Original Message —–
From: <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2003 6:07 PM
Subject: RHIZOME_RAW: Question 1


>
> (Broke my original post into 3 for the
> taggers <img src="images/icons/icon7.gif" alt=":-)" border=0
align='absmiddle'> )
>
> &gt;When communities open themselves up to
> &gt;sharing their resources with the world at
> &gt;large, they also open themselves up to
> &gt;exploitation by special interests.
>
> I think it's important to recognize and
> "think through" the false boundaries that
> basically serve the interests of those
> "special interests." As Chomsky says,
> special interests in the government's view
> means the population at large. They divide
> up the people into women, workers, asians,
> first nations, etc, then call them "special
> interests" when they try to reverse that
> categorization by demanding to be "people."
>
> The same should be said for these closed
> communities, when they "open up." It is in
> their ultimate interests to universalize
> their community, not hide behind strict
> boundaries. Remember that, because of
> overlapping communities, you are as likely to
> convert your "interlopers" to your way of
> thinking as the members of your community are
> likely to spontaneously have changes of mind
> to become "interlopers" themselves.
>
> When a corporate software developer "shares
> its resources with the world at large," i.e.
> by putting their product on the market - they
> are opening themselves up to exploitation by
> piraters and file-sharers. Ultimately,
> though, this benefits everyone (too slowly to
> save some people's careers, mortgages, shoes
> for their kids etc, of course). The
> employees, in a sort of forced collective of
> capitalist exploitation, will eventually be
> liberated by open-source and could return to
> the same social role in a more voluntary
> collective after the current global system
> cracks up! The workers in that "corporate
> family" may think they are in a community,
> with common interests, united against their
> competitors, and either serving or exploiting
> the public - but they are also members of
> many more important overlapping communities -
> their neighbourhoods, families, cities,
> ethnicities, friends, and other publics.
>
> On the other hand, when the First Nations of
> British Columbia decided it would be a good
> idea to trade a little of their fairly-
> useless gold with the white foreigners
> lurking on the edges of their communities,
> they unfortunately sent a lighting-bolt
> message all the way to California which
> resulted in a wave of armed, Indian-killing
> prospectors pillaging their homes for over a
> century. This is obviously not the desired
> outcome of resource-sharing, but having
> learned from this example and others, the
> first nations have now formed webs with
> socialists, anarchists, other nations and
> exploited peoples, etc, and it's pretty darn
> hard to go shooting Injuns these days. More
> sharing, not less, is the answer.
>
> The tribal peoples I visited in Pakistan,
> though, still have an exclusionary solution:
> tightening religious dogma and rifles aimed
> outward. Not much good against satellite
> guided missiles, I'm afraid; that type of
> solution plays into the hands of the
> interloper, ultimately, since in the early
> 21st century, the closed, proprietary systems
> have the decisive upper hand in brute force
> (including lawyers). Infiltration and
> networking, making your network extend even
> inside the "enemy's" network - these are the
> unstoppable tools of the community-minded.
> Remember that the fragging of their own
> officers by American soldiers played an
> important role in the failure of the US
> invasion of Vietnam.
>
> (See some video about my travels in Pakistan
> at:
>
> <A Href="http://www.120seconds.com/index.cfm?moviet4"
target="_blank">http://www.120seconds.com/index.cfm?moviet4</A>
> )
> +
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>

Comments

, Richard Chung

David Goldschmidt &lt;[email protected]&gt;
wrote:
&gt; where's DEATH went you actually want him/
&gt;her/them?


Are you threatening to kill me or something?

];-&gt;