Possibility and Diversion

Madame M:

IS God trying to impart those truths? Maybe He is leaving it up to the souls of the immortal world to do that? But I guess that would mean He would still be doing it indirectly, so maybe that is parsing the part about impart. :)

Moving from passive to active is usually a better thing, I agree. And having some avenue for a creative process, especially to organize and land thoughts, is superb and needed.

Socialization and the web and the contribution of “surplus,” seem to me to be a mixture, part good and part not so good. As for related aspects of the psychology of socialization and “contribution” and the web, here again I see a mixture, although a less even one: part is good in that it gives you free thinking access, part is bad in that it both connects and isolates, can hide you and blind you.
Shirky for his part seems to be giddy with all the possibilities of active and free contribution. I am excited about that as well, yet there are other aspects to consider. First, not all cognitive surplus is a net gain—not by a long shot. Many who don’t have jobs but should (or should be looking for, or preparing), divert their time and energy in marginality and live an ultimately unsustainable and unrealistic pseudo-life via the web. The process of obsessive “surplussing” can also contribute to the already nearly epidemic lack of focus by fanatics of electronic involvement. Second, but maybe it should be first, is relegating of economic productivity. People who are contributing surplus are often not contributing basic economic productivity, but should be. Life is not virtual, and certainly economic life isn’t. This country already has a big enough problem with denial. Third, there is a concept of balance that is perhaps being missed.

However, I am somewhat handicapped in all this because I have not read the full works, and shall defer to you to fill in the blanks or correct misperceptions!

While I might sympathize with a portion of what your aforementioned critic intimates, such crass arrogance, narrow materialism, and fealty to controllers/”managers” so undermines any point(s) he might make, I will not only share your disdain, I will say that his attitude is why Gross Domestic Product and general economic thought are each not worthwhile measures of the economic health and productivity of a society. For far too long we have not figured in or much valued the highly valuable (and often essential) unpaid work of society, the work that undergirds society and makes possible so much, and that indeed, the society could not function without.