[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Linux and Socialism: a summary





>KG>> The main topic was the discussion of Linux as a contra-hegemonic
>KG>> movement in the field of Producer-Consumer relations. Hegemony
>KG>> is a popular concept in Neo- Marxist thinking, you can read
>KG>> about it, e.g. in Raymond Williams'es "Marxism and Literature",
>KG>> chapters 6-8. Understanding hegemony is especially
>
>Coold you please explain this concept? I'm not sure I could find this book
>in my surroundings, and I'm on the scedule to tight to make a broad
>library search.
>

The way I understand hegemony (please realize that it is a complicated topic
and my representation is just what was convinient for the lecture) is a
situation where two sides (or, in the classical Marxist terminology, two
classes) are opposed, one of them being the hegemony (the stronger) and the
other the subaltern (I hope I spell this correctly). The two sides engage in
a continous dialogue, the results of which are that facts/opinions that are
convinient to the hegemony are accepted as axioms.

The contra-hegemony tries to confront these axioms and show that they are
not really axioms but merely functions of a specific social situation.

Examples of contra-hegemonic movements: the Protestants in Germany in th
15th century, the Democrats in France before the revolution, communist
parties in the west today and so on.

And again, I recommend everybody to read more about this topic.

>KG>> The axiom of fashion - the axiom that new is inherently better
>KG>> than old, again regardless of the actual objects.
>
>This is the base of most of the large software firms' income.
>

I still think that this is more relevant to non-high-tech industries.

>KG>> The axiom of advertising - the automatic assumption that
>KG>> advertising products is a necessary part of the economy and a
>KG>> fact of life. Again, let me note that the fact that lawyers are
>KG>> not allowed to advertise their services has not led to a
>KG>> collapse of law and lawyers.
>
>But I now might a trouble finding a good lawyer. I just don't know whom to
>ask. Advertisement might give me good point to start. Or it might not. :))
>

"Axiom" is not a four letter word. I'm not trying to portray the Capitalist
world as the face of evil, I'm merely pointing out that there are
alternatives to facts of life that we usually accept without a second
thought.

>KG>> The axiom of nonfixability - we discussed in length why
>KG>> high-tech product are so difficult/expensive to fix and whether
>KG>> this is really an "axiom" i.e. an inherent part of their nature.
>
>They aren't in fact. Just nobody cares to fix them, because customers
>accept them broken.

I didn't mean that they come "broken" in the sense that windows is broken. I
meant to ask why is it so difficult/expensive to fix my VCR/stereo/car when
it breaks down? Is it because they are really complicated devices which can
only be fixed by specialists at a great effort, if at all, or is it BECAUSE
THEY ARE BUILT TO BE DIFFICULT TO FIX?

>
>KG>> The axiom of price - that software cannot be written unless it
>KG>> is sold (the fact that Linux disproves this "axiom" I hope I do
>KG>> not need to explain).
>
>Add in-house software and particular-application software, which isn't
>sold to anybody - it's developed by programmer on salary and remains
>inside the company (or could be given away as well - nobody would really
>care, because it was developed for one purpose and had served it already).
>In fact, only the greed of higher management stops such a software from
>being open-sourced afterwards.

Have a look at the Gnu manifesto, it addresses this point much better than I
could ever hope to.

>--
>frodo@sharat.co.il \/  There shall be counsels taken
>Stanislav Malyshev /\  Stronger than Morgul-spells
>phone +972-3-9316425 /\  JRRT LotR.
>http://sharat.co.il/frodo/ whois:!SM8333


I just read Lord of the Rings again - and enjoyed it even more.