Here I am thinking that we should all be investing in long term, local agrarianism. Because with the kind of shit I've seen recently, it seems obvious to me that this whole techno-dependant world view we live with, this ideal that is held up as "the best of all possible worlds". It isn't going to just go away if we choose to turn away from the current realities that shape our world. Why? Because of cell phones, nay, hand held computers.
With these crazy things in our hands we're going to go through one of those "flash in the pan" periods of history. It's going to be one of those moments where the freedom of ideas is going to reign. And I mean big-time. When we step away, really I should say: "As we step away…" because it has already begun to happen. So, as we step away from the limits that their architecture imposes on us as a people, we have begun to see how those limits are just a part of another frame. The descent into absurdity with this kind of reasoning is clear, but nonetheless the truth it reveals is just as clear: we're all about to talk with each other. In the end, we'll probably just end up talking about another way to frame things. But we are going to talk. Freely, and without them. Unless they join us.
I can't imagine a bigger threat to the current ideologues. Like grains of sand in a sandstorm. We will simply bypass their constructed barriers to communication and talk directly with each other. We can even pay each other directly. How could they stop us? Will they simply stop selling us the devices? It's too late for that. Even if eventually, and this is just for the sake of argument, because "eventually" would be so many years, far too many for any current, conventional corporate structure to survive. But eventually we would run out of cell phones and then come begging back to them for more? Like poor old Oliver Twist? Not likely. Like I said, I've seen the in's and out's of how these tools come to be made. Small time manufacturers have built tools that build these tools. I'll say that again because it's kind of weird. They have built tools that build the tools. The boards, the chips, the thingies that are on the inside of everything, doing all the shit that does the crazy stuff and all those other amazing things these hand held computers can do. All of these things can be built in your garage. But it won't ever get that far.
Weirdly, it's that whole pesky free market thing that is gonna step in and keep the inventive, marginal people, well, marginalized. Basically, there is going to be somebody who doesn't give a crap about the current business model, which I generalize as: try to suck every bit of cash out of as many people as possible. Anyway, this new guy is simply going to ignore the current wisdom's dumb-ass issue of needing to control everything and just sell an in-demand product. Yeah, weird. Like I said. But before we even get to that guy, there is this transition period I mentioned.
I think this is where we are now. Transitioning. At least, I suspect that there is a transition that is happening to us all on a cultural level. It is a transitional period that will be remarkable above others, perhaps. Mostly, I believe, because of it's immediate, day to day noteworthiness. Which is unusual. Because for most of us, I mean for people in general, we don't usually spend time thinking about our easily accessible, long-term mental database of transferred beliefs, meaning communication itself. It's not usually in our immediate, active thoughts. But now? I might go so far as to say many of us are obsessed with it.
Of course, like their predecessors, whoever it is that ends up making all the money during this transitional period, clearly I'm saying this cynically, but it's usually the case, but whoever they end up being and whatever it is they're going to do to make "all the money"? The doing of that thing? That will become "the rules". My feeling is that despite the rampant, cathartic release of communicational barriers that we are all about to wallow in unabashedly is not going to last. There will be some sort of counter-measure applied to it. From within or without. And who ever it is that tries to stem the flow, well, they're going to use reasonable, yet ultimately arbitrary rules to win. It's like back living with your parents. There's always a reason you can't have the car, but it's always arbitrary how the keys are only ever in one persons hands. But choking back my cynicism, I can see there is at least an opportunity to effect some long-term change to ensure our freedom of communication. If I'm wrong and we all end up living in some cyber-enhanced communotpia? Well, hooray for us! Otherwise, right now, we have a chance to reframe the way we communicate. To culturally weave another perspective into the fabric of society, to be included with the "known but unwritten rules" that govern our lives. Perhaps we can do it in such a way that when the rollbacks come, they will at least be framed in a way that will help protect us; protect our open and free communication.
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