Tonight I did a recent search of blogs using the word communitarian and found a post at nolanchart.com called The Ethics of Capitalism vs. Socialism vs. Communitarianism, "A focus on the moral distinctions between different social systems: Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, Altruism, Statism & Communitarianism, including and introducing Jacque Fresco's futurist society" by Jose Roldan: the Abolitionist, (libertarian) Thursday, April 8, 2010.
Mr. Roldan makes some bold and sweeping assumptions about Communitarianism, not the least being his assurance that the internet is the first evolutionary stage of a communitarian society:
Is Amitai Etzioni, the father of the Communitarian movement, a human being or a robot?
Mr. Roldan makes some bold and sweeping assumptions about Communitarianism, not the least being his assurance that the internet is the first evolutionary stage of a communitarian society:
"The ultimate expression of communitarianism - (my term not his), is Jacque Fresco's Venus Project. In this social engineering vision of a future social system devoid of capitalism or socialism the needs and human rights of the community are provided for by a combination of volunteers and robotic mechanization.The Zeitgeist movies claim to be an expose of the "real" conspiracy and then leads the viewers into accepting communitarianism as the solution! Brilliant really, and a lot of people are duped by this angle. It has a growing following, the producer is said to be inspirational, and The Zeitgeist Movement is the activist arm of The Venus Project http://www.thevenusproject.com/
"The basic fundamental principle is that all of the world's natural resources belong to all. As the sun begins its trajectory across the sky radiating more free energy upon the Earth in one day than in centuries of human fossil-burning activity, the logic of harnessing and living in harmony with Nature seems sublime.
"The ethics of a free public library has made the technological leap to the internet and only statist government intrusion will try to curtail this natural advancement in freedom of information and expression. The internet is the greatest example of today's communitarianism, one that we all embrace and acknowledge as a huge step forward in man's evolution, as significant today as the Gutenburg press of yesterday. To the children of today, the internet is as free and natural as the sunshine.
"While Fresco's vision of the future may seem hindered by our own negative associations with the failed and failing systems of socialism and communism, rest assured that the internet is none other than part of this technological and social eventuality. It represents the first preliminary stage of a communitarian society and the end of capitalism and our artificial political and economic world as we know it."
Is Amitai Etzioni, the father of the Communitarian movement, a human being or a robot?
OK, I haven't looked that deeply into the Venus Project pages, but it looks nothing more than "neo-technocrat".
ReplyDeleteI always laugh at these folk with their "new paradigm", when the Amish have achieved all the same goals with their agrarian society - peace, prosperity, and community. And the Amish youth even have an opportunity to leave their society at an early age, if they don't like it.