Reasons Unbeknownst

I can sum up the point of this whole post in one sentence. If real democracy cannot exist without a free press then real capitalism cannot exist without the Internet.

A few years ago I paid $10 for access to an online discussion board frequented by Noam Chomsky and I asked him a question. “How has the Internet affected your understanding of the media?” His response was “I’m an innocent as far as the internet is concerned. I don’t even know what blogger.com is. Better raise the question with others.”

I haven’t tried to understand his work in linguistics but I think his analysis of the media is brilliant. He is a mesmerizing speaker but I was always disturbed by his notion that capitalism is fundamentally flawed. In “Manufacturing Consent” he talks about a requirement of rational central planning as an alternative to the evils of capitalism.

Here’s what I think was going through his head. He buried himself in the study of media and realized the disastrous consequences of communication monopolies when applied to democracy. Those media monopolies were allowed by capitalism which may explain his fear and loathing. And he was absolutely right at that time. His mistake was failing to predict how fast the Internet would break down the system as it existed when he wrote “Manufacturing Consent”. You get the sense that he assumes alternative media will always be crushed due to the inefficiencies and corruption associated with capitalism. Howard Dean and Ron Paul are living proof that the Internet is starting to allow the spread of previously taboo political beliefs.

Chomsky gets communication. He doesn’t get technology (as evidenced by his reply to my question) and based on his insistence upon “rational central planning” as a way forward it looks like he also doesn’t really understand economics or at least the power of emergent order, which is a bit strange considering his love of democracy. My plan is to bump into him some day so I can ask these questions.