A Return to an Understanding of the Commons

**maxx** · July-01-11, 01:32 PM

This quote reminded me of the need to think of somethings as commonly held by us all. This idea of the commons is being revived by groups and used mainly arguing against the privatization of water which is happening in parts of the world. There needs to be a place where anyone can get correct information on issues conveyed in a form comprehendible to most people. Our sources of information are dwindling in number which I think is dangerous to our democracy. A democracy depends on an honestly informed electorate, not one held captive to the opinions of monied interests.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...0110622?page=4
"... Thomas Paine could walk out of his front door in Philadelphia and find a dozen competing, low-cost print shops within blocks of his home. Today, if he traveled to the nearest TV station, or to the headquarters of nearby Comcast — the dominant television provider in America — and tried to deliver his new ideas to the American people, he would be laughed off the premises. The public square that used to be a commons has been refeudalized, and the gatekeepers charge large rents for the privilege of communicating to the American people over the only medium that really affects their thinking. 'Citizens' are now referred to more commonly as 'consumers' or 'the audience.'..."

**rb336** · July-05-11, 08:43 AM

You are clearly a commie atheist anti-american heathen homosexual bent on destroying the United States

**oladub** · July-05-11, 10:05 AM

Al Gore minimizes the internet as a way of obtaining news. He also seems to forget that there were only three networks in operation when he was a child and that their range of opinions was narrower than, say, that of Fox and MSNBC today. To his credit though, Al Gore is opening up his new TV network to get across his own message without trying to regulate other media.
http://www.democraticunderground.com...ss=102x1366640

maxx, I almost hate to belabor the point, and you are no doubt aware of this, but we are a constitutional republic rather than a democracy; one practical difference being that, in theory, the rights of minorities are somewhat protected from the power of a 50+% majority which can act as a dictatorship.

**maxx** · July-05-11, 11:52 AM

A republic is a form of democracy in that the people vote for their representatives rather than accept a monarch or dictator's orders. In a pure direct democracy everyone votes on every issue directly. Conservatives like to perpetuate the idea that a republic is some different animal from a democracy which is a government in which the people are the government. If our democracy today is more like an oligarchy that is the work of the monied interests and their lackeys in Congress.

**rb336** · July-05-11, 01:01 PM

I think I can count on one hand the number of MOCs that aren't the lackeys of monied interests.

**oladub** · July-05-11, 01:20 PM

Originally Posted by maxx

A republic is a form of democracy in that the people vote for their representatives rather than accept a monarch or dictator's orders.

Our representatives did not vote to bomb Libya. Was the executive order to do so then a form of an "monarch or dictator's order" allowable in your democracy?

**jiminnm** · July-06-11, 12:06 PM

maxx, you're posting on the largest 'commons' yet to be seen. Thomas Paine would be thrilled with today's communication opportunities.

**maxx** · July-07-11, 07:59 AM

I wonder. Paine didn't have much money. He might have felt that the internet was just another way that the poor were kept out of the loop.

To return to the idea of the commons: Cochabamba has become the model case of the poor fighting against privatization of water. And it looks like any nation needs to beware of the World Bank.
http://www.commondreams.org/views/071500-101.htm
In 1999, following years of direct pressure from the World Bank, Bolivia's government finally agreed to privatize the public water system of its third largest city, Cochabamba. A 40-year lease turned over control of the water to a subsidiary of the California-based Bechtel Corp. Within weeks, the company doubled and tripled local water rates.
Families earning less than $100 per month were hit with bills of as high as $20. Faced with water bills they simply could not afford, the people who live here responded with a series of massive protests, shutting their city down for a week and refusing to pay...

**maxx** · July-07-11, 08:48 AM

Originally Posted by rb336

You are clearly a commie atheist anti-american heathen homosexual bent on destroying the United States

Thank you. In the land of the plutocrats, the commie, atheist, heathen homosexual is the voice of reason.

**oladub** · July-07-11, 11:08 AM

Originally Posted by jiminnm

maxx, you're posting on the largest 'commons' yet to be seen. Thomas Paine would be thrilled with today's communication opportunities.

The founders did promote both science and the commons. The "progress of Science and useful arts' were encouraged by securing for their authors and inventors temporary and exclusive rights to benefit from their innovations". Also, "Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 of the United States Constitution, known as the Postal Clause or the Postal Power, empowers Congress "To establish Post Offices and post Roads"." Insofar as the US Air Force is considered a variant of the Army, or the M-16 is a modern version of the muskets referred to as firearms, the internet could be considered a technological variety of the power to create postal roads.