We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

The open source revolution is coming and it will conquer the 1% - ex CIA spy

Click here to access article by Nafeez Ahmed from The Guardian.

Ahmed has recently discovered the works of Robert David Steele and is quite impressed with his vision and optimism about the future. Ahmed first discovered Steele's vision by reading his books. Then he followed this by a recent interview with the author which is detailed in the article.
Last month, Steele presented a startling paper at the Libtech conference in New York, sponsored by the Internet Society and Reclaim. Drawing on principles set out in his latest book, The Open-Source Everything Manifesto: Transparency, Truth and Trust, he told the audience that all the major preconditions for revolution – set out in his 1976 graduate thesis – were now present in the United States and Britain.

Steele's book is a must-read, a powerful yet still pragmatic roadmap to a new civilisational paradigm that simultaneously offers a trenchant, unrelenting critique of the prevailing global order. His interdisciplinary 'whole systems' approach dramatically connects up the increasing corruption, inefficiency and unaccountability of the intelligence system and its political and financial masters with escalating inequalities and environmental crises. But he also offers a comprehensive vision of hope that activist networks like Reclaim are implementing today.
Although people like Ahmed, the people at Reclaim, and Occupy Wall Street are very impressed with Steele's vision, I remain rather skeptical. There is nothing that I've read in this and related articles about an economy centered on the core concept of private ownership of socially produced wealth. Such an economy is the cornerstone of the powerful edifice of capitalism and its tiny ruling class. This system not only provides enormous wealth to its owners, but the more addictive substances of overwhelming power and control. Addicted people do not give up their drugs of choice lightly. In spite of all the neat charts and the mantra-like repetition of "Open Source", I don't see much hard evidence to support Steele's optimistic vision. Nevertheless, with such people behind it, I think it is worth our examination.