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The Inevitable Behemoth
In the cyber world as in the physical world, the capitalist behemoth devours as it smashes its way to be biggest and most powerful. Like dinosaurs growing ever bigger by devouring smaller dinosaurs, and increasing their appetite in the process, the inevitable end result of capitalism is always to reduce competition, the very thing it's defenders extol as the very core of the system. Microsoft is about to devour Yahoo, as Google has grown too close to the same power and wealth, and MS feels threatened in its preeminent position. Just as in the physical world where large companies take over smaller ones in the same field and either convert them to 'branches' or close them, and tycoons buy up companies in a wide range of industries to increase their insane search for global power, so too in the virtual world, which is still the world of men, small doesn't mean beautiful, but irritating, and if small becomes medium, it's likely to be bought up and demolished or incorporated into the body of The Beast, inflating it further. The web started out as a community of idealists, programmer based, geeky, generous with its time and intel, careless about wealth. Open access was all, free programs abounded, and shareware was born. Shareware is still around, and works by feeding small amounts of money to the programmers, a regular drip as users of the free program get to appreciate it, feel slightly guilty about the poor programmer, get a bit of cash spare, and pay up. Trust is something capitalists don't trust however, they hate it, it leaves them open to be 'ripped off' of their profits, it haunts them. That's why people of the wealth of Paul McCartney spend their precious time agonising over illegal file sharing; all that money they aren't getting! Some musicians like other creatives have realised have realised that sharing is good, it gets your work about and can even make you famous. Free downloads of music, just like free downloads of software, get you noticed, talked about, played or used, then the money comes. It may be less per download than a CD might have cost, but if ten times more are sold what's the problem? Many people can't afford to pay, they are poor. Are they to be denied all the fruits of human ingenuity just because of that? Or can the rest who can afford it allow them to not pay? With some software costing hundreds of pounds, a lot of people who aren't even poor can't afford to buy it, so wouldn't it be better if they could use earlier versions for free? No sales are lost, no money. But more get to enjoy and use productively such programs as CorelDraw and Photoshop, while the rich design firms who can afford the price, pay up for each upgrade, keep the programmers in jobs, and feel superior for it.
How bad it that? But when you hear some of these people pratting on to whoever will listen about 'piracy is theft' and other such daft slogans, it becomes clear that they have a problem, an obsession with getting wealthy that overrides their humanity. Bill Gates suddenly discovered it and has been trying to salve the guilt and welcome the return of his conscience ever since by donating billions to AIDS in Africa, but the beast he created still roars and devours the weaker ones, still has that inevitable urge to dominate and control. And once a company shows a reduction in profit GROWTH, it's thought to be in trouble. Not a loss mind, just a slight drop in it's profits can send the share price spiralling down, and vulture capitalists gather quickly to pick over the corpse. Doesn't sound like a healthy, sustainable system does it? The very worst aspect of this inevitable progression is the only price that's ever really paid is by the environment; raw materials to make stuff to make profits and the energy consumption and carbon emissions associated with it, over-consumption by those who get rich, unprofitable waste dumped and so on. Capitalism is eating the planet. |
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PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE
Fool on the Hill
A blog about the state of the world
www.oneworldnet.co.uk/blog/index.php
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