Greetings Economists, On May 24, 2007, at 5:19 AM, Louis Proyect wrote:
Getting beyond this hollow, theatrical contrarianism and into a realm of real, good-faith debate will require overhauling the way that writers, especially political writers, make their living.
Doyle; I don't read much of Cockburn's writings though once in a while. What I am focusing upon here is the concept of overhauling. What sort of process would that be? I don't think this essay tells us much. The left process? I would think access to public discourse is what is being considered. Financial support and stability of the work process. Some aspects of the social process mirroring say Wikipedia where anyone can write, but a community manages the stability of the self expression. Stability of content might miss lead here. With various people contributing the process is dynamic in the building up, but reaches a place where content either is agreed upon for that moment or different views contend in stalemate about meaning. I wonder if automation might address this process. Increase the mass of work to a greater degree than is now usual, find ways to seek common structure in a more global way, and so on. Much of Cockburn's work is hub work, not opinion making. Hub being the network process to connect up to as many people as possible in a robust way. Summarizing, Cockburn is not so important a critical issue in the questions I raise. And this essay elides the communal overhaul suggested above. Doyle
