I've had a mental image for a couple years of a social network system that enables people to organize labor according to mutualistic principles. That's the kind of thing that I think could replace our current model.
The idea is you make a profile that includes your geographic location and skills and maybe even access to tools. You post projects that you think are needed or worth doing, and that you can't do on your own. A call for help. It can be anything from "I'm too sick to get out of bed. I need someone to help me with chores." to "Let's fix all the city's roads" to "Let's work on a cure for cancer." These calls will be visible to people with relevant skillsets and geographic location. The call for help with chores would be visible to pretty much anyone close to you. The call for road repairs would be visible to anyone in your county with the proper skills and/or tools. The call for a cure for cancer would be visible to anyone in the world with proper skills and/or tools.
Every call would generate a discussion thread for organizing. Broad scale/complex calls would generate their own forum. Of course, the volume of information on this thing would be pretty extreme, so there would need to be sophisticated filtering tools for browsing and displaying the calls that are most relevant to every person. Also a voting system for raising the visibility of calls according to widespread agreement and priority, and an alarm system for calls like "Somebody's dying. Need help now."
I've also thought about the idea of a reputation/endorsement system to mark individuals that do a lot for the community or do things really well, making that person more likely to receive extra support in return for their contributions. And otherwise, the motivation to participate would be that the economy sucks, and this kind of tool would be a powerful and dynamic way to help people get things done without relying on an abstracted model of organization like capitalism is.
Because what I've seen is that as the formal economy continues to fail more and more people, alternative styles of informal micro-economies spring up everywhere to replace it. People start bartering and finding other ways to support each other while they do things because they need to be done, even if no one's getting paid for them. And since around the mid-2000s, these things are becoming increasingly digital in nature. Advanced communication tools are used to facilitate mutualistic cooperation. And some are made specifically for that purpose, such as freecycle.
But those are scattered bits that get a good thing done here and there. I think all we need is a tool that's deliberately built to unite that trend into something that can grow and evolve in scope, and become a deeper part of our culture moving forward. And the most important thing about it is it doesn't need to take the form of a direct resistance to capitalism. It doesn't need to challenge and fight against any establishment, or stake out any isolated land claim where it can be free to do its own thing. It's something that people can freely participate in when it makes sense for them to do so, even alongside their normal participation in the capitalist economy. This gives it the freedom to grow unhindered by any legitimate claim of immediate threat by existing powers, and that's the only kind of thing that's capable of succeeding right now, given the current hyper-ideologically vigilant and militarized police state of America.
--edit--
And most importantly, it doesn't rely on anybody's ideological convictions to earn their participation, which I think is something that dooms many projects to failure. The thing I've noticed about major changes is that they just happen to make sense to people who aren't thinking into things any deeper than the need to navigate their daily lives. People will latch on to anything that works around obstacles and makes their lives easier. I noticed this with online piracy. Most people don't do it for ideological reasons. They do it because it accomplishes something for them without any immediate consequences. It's easy and just makes sense, and that's all they care about. I think any kind of attempt at deep change needs to recognize this.
Author
Topic: Occupying Wallstreet (Read 294232 times)