Monday, March 14, 2011

Capitalists and Friends

I am working on the idea that "social networking," or social computer network activity, is an analogy for capitalism itself.

A person on a facebook page or something like that is not a "real" person, just as in capitalism when persons "connect" they do not connect as "real" people but rather they just connect as buyers and sellers.

Truly "real" social interactions follow a huge set of rules and laws (i.e. 'natural law') connected to the physical universe. For example I can shout, and be heard for some distance, but beyond a certain point it cannot be heard. I cannot create a social relationship that includes conversation beyond a distance of a few feet.

Capitalism breaks these innate physical rules and creates a fake world---of trade, commerce, business networks, ever-increasing wealth, etc.

What come into question is the "reality" of these social relationships, especially as capitalism tries to move forward. At some point, capitalism hits a brick wall. At that point it is no longer of any use to anyone. The tenuous connection between capitalism and human life has now been broken and the whole system shatters.

This of course is why we must indeed "intervene" at some point in the system. If that is so, then the "Right" position in the economics debate is (literally) dead wrong.

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