When I studied cooperatives some years ago, I found evidence that they were effective, for instance, among laborers in England and small farmers in America - when and where the "little" man is confronted by the disadvantage of "robber baron" combines. But gradually the economic advantages were diminished through further rationalization" of the economy via industrialization and democratization. Certain co-ops still work, but given the higher integration of the economy as a whole, most of them simply are not "efficient", at least not wherever money is god. Such is progress, and its material benefits are undeniable.
Too many of us have fallen under the spell, that "progress" is complete, that evolution is at an end, that This Great Nation of Ours is in fact a political and consumer democracy, that we vote for politicians and products with ballots and dollars. That we do, but the candidates and the products produced are actually chosen by a minority of a minority of a minority, and that is rationalized as a planning process necessary to the consumptive ends of mass society, where anything goes as long as it gets done, regardless of the immorality or the vulgarity in taste involved.
Most recently the wonderfully decentralized machine called the Internet, originally designed for war, came into the civilized hands of people who dreamed of real democracy, of a genuine participatory democracy. It was believed that the incredibly flexible machine would rid us of the mindless bureaucracy and middling management behind which a cynical power elite feasted its insatiable lust for power and obscene luxury.
But it now appears the hopes and dreams were pipe dreams, just another craze and panic of Crazes and Panics, to be included in another edition of The Madness of Crowds. The Bubble burst, and, with enthusiasm deflated, the crowd submits once again as it slips back from the New Paradigm of a Different Order into the Old Stinking Mundane Morass of Reality. In the final financial analysis, somebody is going to have to pay for the party out the proceeds, namely those with the most wealth and other forms of power who are in a position to scoop up abandoned liberties some time after the screams of Fire!
Thus the Internet loses its lustre as a liberating tool, and remains as a more efficient instrument for top-down rationalization of the mob, for the mass manipulation of production and consumption, for a new and expanded version of Business as Usual.
And what type of cog is being manufactured? An all-consuming, cynical cog fashioned in the image of the shopping-cart. The superstore is presided over by gluttonous and cynical gods, who reign from gentleman's ranches and corporate board rooms over the spiritual wasteland - they would waste as well the natural resources as soon as humanly possible. And this is all for free trade, or so they see, at least as long as it lasts: the mob, preoccupied with trash, gorges itself with garbage, and the power elite get glory and more enduring treasure to hoard in luxurious compounds.
As writers concerned with the mental life, and maybe even the spiritual life, we might wonder, What sort of mentality prevails back at the ranch and within other inner sanctums to which we are not invited but can only enter by tooth and claw - and then only if Fickle Fortune is on our side as we face the mountains of inherited wealth. It is not the high mentality we would expect in high places. Karl Mannheim noted that well:
"A new factor has entered into the moulding of human nature. Up to now we could believe that relatively free competition between different forms of education and propaganda would, by natural selection, allow the rational, educated type of man, best fitted for modern conditions, to rise to the top. But when the instruments of propaganda are concentrated in a few hands, they may be monopolized by the more primitive type, and then the spiritual regression which has appeared becomes permanent."
That is to say, those who are on the top are morally primitive and are the very "forces of darkness and tribalism" they worry about. Observe them seizing the Internet with the help of their political cabinet and their media, the instrument of propaganda that propagates, among other things, despite the technical education, a stunted, primitive mental type. And in that image we are made, since we have abandoned once again our dream, and would not re-make ourselves as individuals. High technology, low morality.
Now those of us who call ourselves writers should think much harder than we write. Alas, too many want a short and easy read, reflecting the inability to concentrate, a shallowness of thought, a fragmentation of consciousness and hyphenated dumbing-down perpetuated by the "multi-tasking" lauded by "fast-paced" businesses. And if we think about publishing as it could be, as we once thought about it in the context of the Internet, which was supposed to free our expression and to bring the best thoughts above the highly educated scum at the top which now clouds our vision, we will see we are derelict in our duty to realize our dreams. Instead, we defer again to Business as Usual between puffs off the old opium pipe while the jazz band plays the democratic consumer anthem.
Oh, no, no, no! Let us not forget Kropotkin and cooperation. Let us think of the ideal authors' Co-op, of the Authors' Pod, of mass co-op sales of POD books or even distribution to glass books. But who among us will cooperate? Yes, despite what some anarchists say, leadership is required, and leaders are few and far between - call them "facilitators" if you must. Others must meritoriously follow merit, if you will, in order to cooperate. Who will lead, who will follow, who will raise some money to get started? The circumstances are opportune for the success of a cooperative publishing pod or two, and I hope someone builds a better funnel for the Funnel Publishing Company before the fruit of our labors go right down the orthodox drain.
Members may join Authorsden Roundtable to discuss this and other subjects under the category, IDEAS.
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