[p2p-research] conditions for successfull resilience

[Kevin Carson]

On 2/13/10, Kevin Carson <free.market.anticapitalist at gmail.com> wrote:


>  We need a shift in focus toward creating reputational and quality
>  assessment mechanisms on a networked basis, to make us as transparent
>  to *each other* as possible as providers of goods and services--and
>  not transparent to an all-seeing state.

>  To do this requires overcoming six hundred years or so of almost
>  inbred habits of thought, by which the state is the all-seeing
>  guardian of society protecting us from the possibility that someone,
>  somewhere might do something wrong if "the authorities" don't prevent
>  it.  We need to replace it with a habit of thinking in terms of
>  ourselves creating mechanisms to prevent *each other* from selling
>  defective merchandise, protecting *ourselves* from fraud, etc.  In
>  other words, we need to lose the centuries-long habit of thinking of
>  "society" as a hub-and-spoke mechanism and viewing the world from the
>  perspective of the hub, and instead think of it as a horizontal
>  network in which we visualize things from the perspective of
>  individual nodes.

I meant to add, this will require, in particular, overcoming the
hostility of conventional liberals who are in the habit of reacting
viscerally and negatively, and on principle, to anything not being
done by "qualified professionals" or "the proper authorities."

Paul Fussell, Andrew Keene, Keith Olbermann (who  mocks the
"barn-raising" ethos)--I'm thinking of you.

Such critics take a remarkably static view of society.  Because people
are not presently in the habit of automatically consulting networked
reputational systems for checking up on people they're considering
doing business with, and are in the habit of unconsciously assuming
the government will protect them, conventional liberals assume that
people will not shift from one to the other in the face of changing
incentives, and scoff at the idea of a society that relies primarily
on networked reputational mechanisms.

But in a society where people are aware that most licensing and
safety/quality codes are no longer enforceable, and "caveat emptor" is
no longer just a cliche, it would be remarkable if things like Angie's
list, reputational certification by local guilds, customer word of
mouth, etc., did *not* rapidly grow in importance for most people.
They were, after all, at one time the main reputational mechanism that
people *did* rely on before the rise of the absolute state, and as
ingrained a part of ordinary economic behavior as reliance on the
regulatory state is today.

In fact, if anything the assumption that "they couldn't sell it if it
wasn't OK, because it's illegal" leaves people especially vulnerable,
because it creates an unjustified confidence and complacency regarding
what they buy.  The standards of safety and quality, based on "current
science," are set primarily by the regulated industries themselves,
and those industries are frequently able to criminalize voluntary
safety inspections with more stringent standards--or advertising that
one adheres to such a higher standard--on the grounds that it
constitutes disparagement of the competitor's product.  For example,
Monsanto frequently goes after grocers who label their milk rBGH free,
and some federal district courts have argued that it's an "unfair
competitive practice" to test one's beef cattle for Mad Cow Disease
more frequently than the mandated industry standard.  We have people
slathering themselves with lotion saturated with estrogen-mimicing
parabens, on the assumption that "they couldn't sell it if it was
dangerous."  So in many cases, this all-seeing central authority we
count on to protect us is like a shepherd that puts the wolves in
charge of the flock.
-- 
Kevin Carson
Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
Mutualist Blog:  Free Market Anti-Capitalism
http://mutualist.blogspot.com
The Homebrew Industrial Revolution:  A Low-Overhead Manifesto
http://homebrewindustrialrevolution.wordpress.com
Organization Theory:  A Libertarian Perspective
http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html