This is the second and concluding part of the interview with Bill Thompson, noted technology commentator and analyst. The first part of this interview was published on March 9th, 2007.
Are we really post-Capitalist as you put it? I would still argue that Capitalism still trumps. The usage patterns of websites etc. still largely reflect the 'old economy'. More importantly, I would argue that the promise of Information Age has long been swallowed by the quicksand of Capital.
When I say post-Capitalist, I don't mean it's not capitalist. If you look at the move from the feudal economy to Capitalism, the accumulation of capital became important. It still remains very important. It is still what drives things. The rich get richer, the powerful remain powerful and those who have good creative ideas get appropriated by the system. We are seeing it happen already with the online video world where now if you create a cool 30 second video, your goal is to monetize that asset and basically you put it on Youtube and try to advertise it - you become part of the system and that this continues to happen. Just in parenthesis, the idea is that we are post-Capitalist not in that we are replacing Capitalism but it’s a different form of Capitalism – its Uber Capitalism, its Networked Capitalism. We need a new word for what we can do now. It doesn't mean that those with capital don't dominate because they do and they will continue for some time, I imagine.
The sense that the network had some sort of democratizing influence is misguided. It hasn't. It has enabled much greater participation. It may well make it possible for more people to benefit from their creativity in a modest way, but I don't think it will do anything to challenge the fundamental split between the owners of capital, those who invest their money and that counts as their work, and the wage slaves, the proletariat, those who have to do stuff every day in order to carry on and earn enough money to live. I don't think it will change that at all.
I think your comments are just spot on. It is great to hear comments that show an astute understanding of the political economy of the net especially at a time when one constantly hears of the wondrous impact of the Internet to revolutionize everything from Democracy to Economy.
Article comments