[p2p-research] Fwd: a very interesting essay on the collapse of the roman empire

[Michel Bauwens]

Thanks Paul,

I updated: http://p2pfoundation.net/Category:Fiction

On Mon, Jul 27, 2009 at 12:16 AM, Paul D. Fernhout <
pdfernhout at kurtz-fernhout.com> wrote:

> Michel Bauwens wrote:
>
>> Who is James Hogan?
>>
>
> James P. Hogan is an author of hard science-fiction, as well as some
> non-fiction. He is controversial about some topics. In general though, he
> has a theme about abundance and self-reliance and peer networks in some of
> his books, like "Voyage from Yesteryear". That specific book has a lot of
> peer-to-peer themes. He later said maybe he went too far with it, but in any
> case, it is a picture of our current society in collission with a
> post-scarcity peer-oriented society. If you have not read it, I can be
> fairly sure you would enjoy it. The first third is a little slow as it sets
> up our current social form but set onboard a vast spaceship; the conflict
> starts after that when that spaceship arrives to bring order to the
> post-scarcity society on another planet.
>
> The author's web site on the book:
>  http://www.jamesphogan.com/books/book.php?titleID=29
>
> An excerpt from Hogan's own summary:
>  http://www.jamesphogan.com/books/info.php?titleID=29&cmd=summary
> """
>  ... In the meantime, Earth went through a dodgy period, but managed in the
> end to muddle through. The fun begins when a generation ship housing a
> population of thousands arrives to "reclaim" the colony on behalf of the
> repressive, authoritarian regime that emerged following the crisis period.
> The Mayflower II brings with it all the tried and tested apparatus for
> bringing a recalcitrant population to heel: authority, with its power
> structure and symbolism, to impress; commercial institutions with the
> promise of wealth and possessions, to tempt and ensnare; a religious
> presence, to awe and instill duty and obedience; and if all else fails,
> armed military force to compel. But what happens when these methods
> encounter a population that has never been conditioned to respond?
>  The book has an interesting corollary. Around about the mid eighties, I
> received a letter notifying me that the story had been serialized in an
> underground Polish s.f. magazine. They hadn't exactly "stolen" it, the
> publishers explained, but had credited zlotys to an account in my name
> there, so if I ever decided to take a holiday in Poland the expenses would
> be covered (there was no exchange mechanism with Western currencies at that
> time). Then the story started surfacing in other countries of Eastern
> Europe, by all accounts to an enthusiastic reception. What they liked there,
> apparently, was the updated "Ghandiesque" formula on how bring down an
> oppressive regime when it's got all the guns. And a couple of years later,
> they were all doing it!
>  So I claim the credit. Forget all the tales you hear about the
> contradictions of Marxist economics, truth getting past the Iron Curtain via
> satellites and the Internet, Reagan's Star Wars program, and so on. ...
> ...
> """
>
> If you are not going to read it anytime soon, there is a plot summary with
> big spoilers here:
>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_from_Yesteryear
> Here is a part of that which is not much of a spoiler:
> """
>  Since the availability of power from fusion reactors and cheap automated
> labor has enabled them to develop a post-scarcity economy, they do not use
> money as a means of exchange, nor do they recognize material possessions as
> symbols of status. Instead, competence and talent are considered symbolic of
> one's social standing – resources that cannot be counterfeited or hoarded,
> and must be put to use if they are to be acknowledged. As a result, the
> competitive drive that fuels capitalist financial systems has filled the
> colony with the products of decades of incredible artistic and technical
> talent, and there are no widespread hierarchies. No one person or group of
> people can know everything, so no one person or group of people is expected
> to speak for all. They have no centralized authorities; some would say they
> have no government at all.
>  The government of the Mayflower II utilizes various methods used
> throughout human history in its attempts to exert control over the
> Chironians; bureaucratic legislature, a capitalist financial system, and
> proselytizing religion. However, they are frustrated by failure at every
> turn: as a people that have never been exposed to Earth's coercive
> authorities, the Chironians lack the social conditioning to even comprehend
> the attempts at subversion. Soon many of the crew from the Mayflower II are
> abandoning their increasingly futile positions in the invading hierarchy in
> favor of adopting the more rewarding Chironian lifestyle. Amid widespread
> speculation that a violent conflict will soon break out, some of the people
> who arrived on the Mayflower II realize that the Chironians do not intend to
> harm the majority of the ship's occupants, but rather use a form of
> satyagraha (Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolent noncompliance) to
> integrate the peaceful travelers into their society and isolate the small
> number who present a real threat. ...
> """
>
> --Paul Fernhout
>



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