Re: [ox-en] Brave GNU World
- From: "I. Claude Harper" <tekell swbell.net>
- Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2001 19:14:39 -0600
What I think is interesting about GNU/FSF/GPL is how it manages to work
within Capitalism.
However, I don't really believe we can say that the 'Linux phenomenon'
works
'within capitalism'. I believe that it would be more accurate to
characterize this as 'existing in embryo within' the system -- and
representing some future alternate system which will be fully 'unfolded'
upon
'maturation'.
I'm in agreement. I definitely didn't mean it was OF capitalism or PART OF
capitalism. It also might have been better if I had said "existing within a
capitalist _society_."
Why I find this interesting is the way capitalism can generally destroy,
nuetralize or make ineffective these "germs" which threaten it. So I think
there is something of value in trying understand this germs protection and
boundaries. How does this work? The sad history of the post WWII U.S., has
been one to ensure that germs like socialism/communism were eliminated no
matter the human cost in other countries.
What I suggest a key difference is, Mutual Aid/Benefit. Some Latin American
country becoming communists doesn't benefit any part of U.S. capitalism.
However, there is Mutual Benefit for supporting GNU/Linux/Free Software.
One principle in GPL style licensing is to ensure this happens, by requiring
modifications to be made available. Additionally, there are many aspects of
mutual benefit, that are of a different nature. Things like companies who
are eager to support Linux as a strategy to benefit them from being
dominated and controlled by non-Free/Proprietary software companies, usually
Microsoft.
So you create a germ has some boundary in which self-enfolding can occur and
this germ does not encourage anti-bodies because of it's mutally
beneficially relationship with the body in which it resides. The mutually
beneficially relationship furthermore promotes growth, by getting the body
to turn over some of it's resources to the germ in order to recieve more of
the benefits of the germs existance.
Furthermore, something such as the GPL as a law is primarily relevant during
the growth stages of the orgranism which deals with boundary issues. That
is, the GPL is a law and therefore of the current body, the non-free
society. It's role isn't to dictate behavior with the new organism, but to
protect it's self-enfolding, from the oppression of the current body.
It does seem significantly easier to do this with software or info-organisms
than physical ones. It's hard to send in an army to stop a sequence of bits
from being copied/moved.
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