[iDC] The Ethics of Participation

[Brian Holmes]

Michel Bauwens wrote:

> even though projects might be collectively 
> sustainable (those who leave are replaced), they are not on an 
> individual basis, because it operates in a context of scarce physical 
> goods that still have to be purchased...
> 
> So the ecology that Brian mentions is only a partial solution, 
> ultimately, I see no alternative than an institutionalization of some 
> kind of non-work related basic income. After all, if medieval and 
> traditional societies were able to subsidize one quarter of their 
> population doing spiritual pursuits, why can't our much richer societies 
> do so?

I too think that a broader participation in symbolic production (whether 
critical information or imaginary and symbolic experimentation) should 
be funded by redistribution, and the only workable proposal so far has 
been for a guaranteed basic income, which would be universal and 
therefore involve neither administration costs, nor the categorizing of 
individuals as this or that subnormal variety. For me this is an element 
of a whole system, all of whose parts interrelate (an "ecology"). 
However, that redistribution is but one facet of a larger "ecology" 
which still has to be taken care of. Other facets include the form and 
quality of debates, the vibrancy of the aesthetic objects that 
circulate, the capacity to influence the dominant classes, the ability 
to stave off a million forms of cooptation and reintegration to a purely 
competitive society (given that one can hardly imagine a peer-production 
universe that would not be exposed to attempts at hostile takeover)...

Curiously, what we now conceive as an "ecology" is inherently 
artificial: it is a complex feedback system, including unpredictable 
phase changes, something which no longer has inherent balance (if it 
ever did, which the new way of thinking tends to suppose it didn't). An 
artificial ecology is a very uncertain and dynamic thing, as well as 
being mind-bogglingly complex; and the word "care" begins to convey all 
kinds of subtle ethics in this context. The deeper reason for expending 
one's energy toward collective pursuits is the rather unsatisfying and 
even scary nature of societies which have configured themselves to be 
entirely egotistical. I think that most people who have sought to take 
peer-to-peer models beyond the immediate desire to download the next 
Madonna single have given some thought to what kind of society they 
would prefer to live in, and what sorts of relationships and freedoms 
such a society might have. This concern has made p2p the interesting 
"strange attractor" that it has become.

best, Brian