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No man, who is not inflamed by vainglory into enthusiasm, can flatter himself that his single, unsupported, desultory, unsystematic endeavours are of power to defeat the subtle designs and united cabals of ambitious citizens. When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.
Through the internet, global, private investors, have centralized, aggregated and come to effectively own and control all forms of local, national, and international social exchange — in communication, education, production, supply, distribution, policing, and government. The right of passage in this increasingly cellular society is rented, a share in an illusory global village that increasingly serves to insulate individuals from one another while their ancient rights and powers, won as citizens and consumers have been voided. With locality atomized, democracy has come to rest on a theatre of continuously orchestrated plebiscites.
Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education).
from: Why Socialism?, Albert Einstein, May 1949.
While the "sources of information" Einstein referred to seventy-five years ago have vastly expanded both in type and funding from that of the print, radio, and black and white TV of that time, his observations are as accurate and pertinent today as they were then.
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DRAFT
"As nodes in a network the ancient rights and powers that individuals had as consumers and citizens have been voided. Locality has been atomized, and democracy transformed into a continuously orchestrated plebiscite."
ancient rights:
of contract,
in tort,
through representation.
the plebiscite illusion
of the availability of information,
of permanence and record,
of reliability of ownership,
of the wisdom of the crowd
'lowest common denominator' rule.
impact
of private propaganda,
of 24/7 broadcasting,
"the illusion of a global village serves to insulate individuals"
remote, asynchronous text
favours simplistic etiquette,
hobbles conversations,
mutes underlying differences,
diffuses synergy of diversity.
groups
form around headline causes,
avoid complexity and ambiguities,
avoid principled engagement.
"rights that individuals had as consumers and citizens have been voided"
mobile-app agreements
used/abused by all 'suppliers'
banks > businesses > governments.
REQUIRED /DEMANDED.
inertial legal transformation
driven by NEED to participate.
effect a license
undisclosed,
variable at will by supplier.
enable and foster
routine eavesdropping/surveillance.
No man, who is not inflamed by vainglory into enthusiasm, can flatter himself that his single, unsupported, desultory, unsystematic endeavours are of power to defeat the subtle designs and united cabals of ambitious citizens. When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.