Re: [ox-en] Where / who is the enemy?
- From: Michael Bauwens <michelsub2003 yahoo.com>
- Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:42:23 -0800 (PST)
Hi Stefan,
I want to clarify my thinking regarding the enemy.
Clearly, in both sharism (youtube) and commonism (linux, wikipedia), there are lines of tension between sharers vs. platform owners and common producers vs. private appropriators ...; also such new practices invarariably threaten established interests (filesharing vs. RIAA)
However, just as in feudalism, the new practices because of their higher productivity, are also of interest to existing elite players, including the state, so they are incorporating them in their own value chains.
My main thesis is that there is a reconfiguration of sections of the ruling class, becoming netarchical capitalists (enabling the creation of social value but also monetizing it, capturing it), and with producing classes becoming peer producers. Peer production is a new life practice, related to a new position in the production process (having their own means of production and distribution), and in this sense, it is less directed 'against capitalism' as an enemy, by being capitalist, than post-capitalist.
The interests of netarchists and peer producers can be both convergent and divergent.
So the 'no enemy' thing means this:
1) both classes are reconfiguring around a new reality
2) the new life practice is essentially constructive at this stage
To use a historical analogy. Were the early merchants and capitalists 'fighting' against a clear feudal enemy, or were they rather creating new practices which were partly aligned and partly divergent from existing practices. Only at a much later than emergent stage would clear class conflicts arise but even then the interplay between bourgeois and nobles was very varied.
So no enemy meant: not the direct antagonist struggle for surplus value as opposed the workers and the capitalists.
Michel
The P2P Foundation researches, documents and promotes peer to peer alternatives.
Wiki and Encyclopedia, at http://p2pfoundation.net; Blog, at http://blog.p2pfoundation.net; Newsletter, at http://integralvisioning.org/index.php?topic=p2p
Basic essay at http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=499; interview at http://poynder.blogspot.com/2006/09/p2p-very-core-of-world-to-come.html; video interview, at http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2006/09/29/network_collaboration_peer_to_peer.htm
----- Original Message ----
From: Stefan Merten <smerten oekonux.de>
To: list-en oekonux.org
Cc: Stefan Merten <smerten oekonux.de>
Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2007 1:46:57 AM
Subject: [ox-en] Where / who is the enemy?
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Hi list!
The final issue which came up during the P2P workshop I want to
present here was: Who and where is the enemy?
If we think that peer production is subversive to capitalism then who
is protecting capitalism? Classicaly this was a task for the state.
However, nowadays at least in the EU the states are quite in favor of
Free Software and things like OpenAccess.
Michel thinks that hacking is not antagonistic to anything but a new
life practice and therefore there is no enemy. I tend to agree on the
"not-antagonistic" part but to me this doesn't explain why resistance
is low. Or do we still not yet saw the maximum resistance?
May be someone here has answers or interesting ideas?
Grüße
Stefan
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