Via Peter Vermeersch: “For more than 500 days Belgium has been without a government. Responding to this political crisis, an independent group of Belgian citizens – from various walks of life and different parts of the country, none of them politicians, but all passionate defenders of democracy – launched the idea of organizing a large… Continue reading
Date archives "November 2011"
Contrasting #OccupyWallStreet and the Tea Party
Excerpted from David Morris: “Both OWS and the Tea Party might be described as populist but their definitions of populism wildly diverge. That divergence has been clear from their founding. Occupy Wall Street began on September 7, 2011 with hundreds converging on Wall Street. The Tea Party began on February 19, 2009 with a rant… Continue reading
Discussing the Assemblies and Consensus of #OccupyWallStreet (2): Consensus is not Self-Management
Excerpted from Michael Albert: “In Greece and Spain, a single message predominated. It had nothing to do with analyses of capitalism or other analytic focuses. Instead, Greek and Spanish activists reported that they had massive assemblies in widespread cities and their occupations grew, grew, grew, so that assemblies were up to 12,000, 15,000 – and… Continue reading
P2P history (3): Rick Falkvinge on the three historical origins of the Pirate Party
Excerpted from Rick Falkvinge: “The Pirate Party has its origins in three separate developments. These developments all take place in 2005. The first development was the fight against software patents in the European Parliament, where corporations tried to buy themselves monopoly laws to the ability to destroy innovative startups that threatened the status quo. In… Continue reading
Toward a Common Theory of Value
James Bernard Quilligan has an essay (series) in the newest issue of Kosmos Journal (Fall | Winter 2011), entitled, Toward a Common Theory of Value | Part One: Common Being. See also the Editorial by Nancy B. Roof. You have to register for free access. * James Quilligan: Does Property Have Properties? “Thus begins an… Continue reading
Eli Pariser: Beware online “filter bubbles”
Worthwhile video: Making sure diversity is no filtered out of our media diets:
Discussing the Assemblies and Consensus of #OccupyWallStreet (1): Is Consensus vs. Majority All There Is?
Excerpted from Miki Kashtan: “I read a piece today from Michael Albert called Occupy to Self-Manage. He’s been on the road for six weeks, and has talked with people in a number of European countries about their experiences of their occupations. Many of them had been dwindling – although people still show up for specific… Continue reading
P2P history (2): The printing press as first p2p revolution
What would happen if Congress dissolved the US Army’s Cyber Command tomorrow, by force? All those trained anti-hackers who survived would suddenly be dispersed — and all of them would have a healthy fear of government and other institutions, and would instinctively react against the existing power structure. They might do many kinds of jobs,… Continue reading
Occupy as a New Societal Model
Excerpted from Alpha Lo: “One of the compelling attractions of Occupy is that it is modeling a possible socio-economic-political paradigm for how society can run. It is a model the whole world is beginning to watch. For those who come and participate in it, its a learning experience, a training in this new paradigm. Occupy’s… Continue reading
P2P history (1): A history of the Socialisation of Production
Excerpted from an essay by Jonathan Clyne and Jean Lievens: “It would be entirely one-sided to look at capitalism and only see crisis. Undoubtedly, in most capitalist countries many people have experienced a declining standard of living, unemployment and a reduction of the welfare state in the past decades. If you add to this the… Continue reading
The Spirituality of #OccupyWallStreet (1): Buddhist and Jewish Reflections
Excerpted from David R. Loy: (below: Rabbi Michael Lerner) “From a Buddhist perspective, the point is that this integrated system is incompatible with Buddhist teachings, because it encourages greed and delusion – the root causes of our dukkha “suffering.” At the heart of the present crisis is the economic, political, and social role of the… Continue reading
What is the P2P Foundation all about? The Gordon Cook Interview series
Because of increased attention to our work, we are relinking to an interview series conducted by Gordon Cook: The Gordon Cook Interview * (1): On the origins of our engagement with P2P * (2): Phase transitions, scarcity, and abundance * (3): From the commons to open and distributed manufacturing * (4): Peak Hierarchy and Open… Continue reading
Deadly Monopolies: Harriet Washington on the Corporate Control of Life Itself
Via Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now: “One of the major themes raised by the Occupy movement is the increasing power of large corporations over more and more aspects of our lives. We spend the hour looking into the issue of the corporate control of life itself. Our guest, Harriet Washington, is a medical ethicist and has… Continue reading
How Virtual Private Networks keep Occupy Wall Street communicating
Neal Ungerleider at fastcompany.com has posted an article describing how the communications of Wall Street occupiers are made difficult and what is being done to keep them going and secure them against eavesdroppers. For one thing, the electricity generators, used to keep the lights on and to charge and run communications equipment, have been confiscated… Continue reading
A warning to #OccupyWallStreet: anticipating the Phase of Demobilization of previous Assembly-based movements
* Thesis: The Disappearance of the Neighborhood Assembly Movement in Buenos Aires, Argentina 2001-2004: A Phase of Demobilization? Mariah Thompson. Mariah Thompson‘s thesis is dedicated to understand the causes of the decline of Assemblies in Argentina. Excerpts: “An interesting opportunity to probe the question of “why do some seemingly powerful social movements suddenly decline?” can… Continue reading
#OccupyWallStreet and the issue of power: on not confusing Power-to and Power-over
Is power essentially something negative? Does it always have to corrupt? And does “taking power” necessarily have to mean taking state power? Excerpted from New Compass magazine: According to Holloway, doing – or quite “simply can-ness, capacity-to-do, the ability to do things” – constitutes the basic form of power. Holloway calls this form of power… Continue reading