[p2p-research] The Age of Asperger: modern society is autistic!

[Mamading Ceesay]

On 16 April 2010 14:32, Patrick Anderson <agnucius at gmail.com> wrote:
> Ryan Lanham wrote:
>> instead what sociologists have termed anomie, alienation, narcissism, or
>> atomization, with privatized religion and politics and high incidence of
>> sole-occupancy and isolated family structure.
>
> This is because we do not know how to share Physical Sources.
>

Speaking as someone who sometimes obsesses over community-level ownership
& sharing of resources in my own (high-functioning autistic?) way, I
think you have a point but perhaps a slightly overstated one.  It's
not so much that we don't know, but we haven't established widely
spread institutions and cultural norms that enable and/or facilitate
such ownership & sharing.

A publication that looks at various ways of sharing is The Sharing Solution:
http://www.nolo.com/products/the-sharing-solution-SHAR.html

There is a blog to go with the book:
http://www.sharingsolutionblog.com/

A non-affiliated site that seems to be a good source of information
re: sharing is Shareable:
http://shareable.net/

>
> We must crack this problem if we are ever to get serious about weaning
> ourselves from the Corporate teat that is leading us carefully down to
> Hell because of it's perverse fascination with keeping Price above
> Cost - a goal which incents scarcity and destruction while mislabeling
> employment a 'need'.
>

Agreed with a caveat, got back this week from the Africa-Middle East
Regional Microcredit Summit in Kenya.  What was undoubted the most
interesting phenomenon was Jamii Bora, an organisation started in 1999
by 50 street beggars.  It is effectively a Mutual Aid society that
employs peer support and mentoring to bring its members out of
poverty.  It helps them learn to create their own livelihoods.  It has
been so successful, that it has had a full banking license as of the
30th of March 2010 and it has enabled a bunch of members to build
their own town so that they can move out of the dreadful Nairobi slums
they've been living in!  This shows what can happen when people
cooperate to create a culture of accomplishment.

The caveat, attended a session at the summit on Social Business where
there was a discussion regarding profit.  The problem with profit
seems to be twofold, firstly where it is maximised at the cost of the
customers, society and the environment.  Secondly where the profits
are distributed almost solely to the shareholders and executives.

To have a viable self-sustaining business, you absolutely have to have
full cost recovery.  If you have profit on top of that, you can afford
to invest in the training and development of your people.  You can
afford to invest in equipment and other useful resources.  You can
improve the compensation of your people. You can afford to employ more
people.  You can cross-subsidise the cost of products and services so
as to make them affordable and accessible to those who would not
otherwise be able to use them.

So I guess a key issue is whether businesses are attending to the
triple bottom line of Planet, People and Profit.  Profit maximisation
to the detriment of Planet and People is something our society can no
longer afford to sanction.  I am however, unaware of any changes in
company regulation in so-called developed nations that addresses this
issue in a mandatory (not voluntary) manner.

-- 
Regards,
Mamading Ceesay
Social and Technological Innovation in the Global Public Interest

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