Marx 2.0
Arbetsvärde, exploatering, alienering… Jag hade nog trott att det var begrepp så rotade i oldschool-marxism att de var i praktiken utdöda. Så nog är det en kulturgärning av Dmytri Kleiner & Brian Wyrick i Mute magazine att tillämpa dem på självaste Web 2.0-hajpen.
I korthet: 2.0-kapitalisterna surfar på open source-rörelsens innovationer, berikar sig på det mervärde som produceras av den obetalde, innehållsskapande användaren och dödar den decentraliserade, demokratiska potentialen i P2P-produktionen. Målet? Ett samhälle där samtliga produktionsmedel står under commons-producenternas kontroll.
Capitalism, rooted in the idea of earning income by way of idle share ownership, requires centralised control, without which peer producers have no reason to share their income with outside shareholders. Capitalism, therefore, is incompatible with free P2P networks, and thus, so long as the financing of internet development comes from private shareholders looking to capture value by owning internet resources, the network will only become more restricted and centralised.
It should be noted that even in the case of commons-based peer production, so long as the commons and membership in the peer group is limited, and inputs such as food for the producers and the computers that they use are acquired from outside the commons-based peer group, then the peer producers themselves may be complicit in the exploitative capturing of this labour value. Thus in order to really address the unjust capture of alienated labour value, access to the commons and membership in the peer group must be extended as far as possible toward the inclusion of a total system of goods and services. Only when all productive goods are available from commons-based producers can all producers retain the value of the product of their labour.
Men är det på låtsas eller på riktigt? Allvarligt eller ironiskt? Jag kan inte riktigt avgöra. Som ett turingtest i marxistisk intelligens.
