Ahmed has recently discovered the works of Robert David Steele and is quite impressed with his vision and optimism about the future. Ahmed first discovered Steele's vision by reading his books. Then he followed this by a recent interview with the author which is detailed in the article.
Although people like Ahmed, the people at Reclaim, and Occupy Wall Street are very impressed with Steele's vision, I remain rather skeptical. There is nothing that I've read in this and related articles about an economy centered on the core concept of private ownership of socially produced wealth. Such an economy is the cornerstone of the powerful edifice of capitalism and its tiny ruling class. This system not only provides enormous wealth to its owners, but the more addictive substances of overwhelming power and control. Addicted people do not give up their drugs of choice lightly. In spite of all the neat charts and the mantra-like repetition of "Open Source", I don't see much hard evidence to support Steele's optimistic vision. Nevertheless, with such people behind it, I think it is worth our examination.Last month, Steele presented a startling paper at the Libtech conference in New York, sponsored by the Internet Society and Reclaim. Drawing on principles set out in his latest book, The Open-Source Everything Manifesto: Transparency, Truth and Trust, he told the audience that all the major preconditions for revolution – set out in his 1976 graduate thesis – were now present in the United States and Britain.
Steele's book is a must-read, a powerful yet still pragmatic roadmap to a new civilisational paradigm that simultaneously offers a trenchant, unrelenting critique of the prevailing global order. His interdisciplinary 'whole systems' approach dramatically connects up the increasing corruption, inefficiency and unaccountability of the intelligence system and its political and financial masters with escalating inequalities and environmental crises. But he also offers a comprehensive vision of hope that activist networks like Reclaim are implementing today.
