Re: [ox-en] Leftist and other capitalist ideologies and peer production

Hi

I have never written in this list, and I'm in it just out of curiosity. 
But I think the difference between peer production's common mode of 
organization (say, Cathedral model / "benevolent dictatorship") and 
left/anarchist organization's commitment to radical democracy is caused 
by fact that peer production operates mostly in virtual space, where new 
"resource base" or "means of production" can be created with a few 
commands to computer. The traditional Left, however, operates in 
material world where resources are finite and access to means of 
production limited.

Therefore it is easier for peer producers to create a new "realm" 
(project fork) if they don't like the leadership, while for traditional 
left the only viable option is to change the leadership.


Regards,
Lehor

On Thu, 21 Jul 2011 08:59:02 +0200, Stefan Merten wrote:
> Hi StefanMz and all!
>
> 4 days ago Stefan Meretz wrote:
>> But the first point,
>> StefanMn, contradicts your assumption, that leftists are against 
>> power:
>> They are in favor of power, but in the right hands. But maybe you 
>> have
>> another group of "modern leftists" in mind...
>
> If I say modern leftists then I mean post-1968 leftists. In my
> understanding the left underwent a major shift after 1968 from more
> authority-oriented (read: party line, state oriented) to more
> anarchist forms (read: individual freedom, community oriented). The
> collapse of the Soviet regime certainly fueled this shift further.
>
> Indeed even in many anarchist schools there are institutionalized
> forms of powers. They usually come in the form of a council - i.e. a
> collective - which is usually controlled by some direct democracy
> mechanism - namely by imperative mandates. Well, even in my anarchist
> past I was always sceptical about these concepts...
>
> Anyway: These forms have nothing in common with what we see in peer
> production. Power in peer production is not controlled in a 
> democratic
> process. The maintainers are (usually) not elected but come into that
> role somehow - usually by self-appointment. For an anarchist this is
> pure horror ;-) .
>
> The interesting thing now is that peer production transcends the
> council scheme as well as the capitalist boss scheme. Of course the
> maintainer principle is highly participative and of course the
> maintainer has the finaly say. And if you are interested in a better
> world of course this is something very worthwhile looking at closer.
> But if you keep (for instance) your anarchist vision you only can
> criticize peer production to not match your vision.
>
> If you take a step a beyond such an ignorant position you will notice
> that your set of underlying values is matched at least partially. 
> This
> is where it becomes interesting - though it may mean that you need to
> give up some old convictions at least partly.
>
>
> 						Grüße
>
> 						Stefan

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